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TO IMMEDIATE PEKING
TELNO 192
OF 291537Z MARCH 93
INFO IMMEDIATE HONG KONG, UKREP JLG HONG KONG
INFO IMMEDIATE BTC HONG KONG, TOKYO, SEOUL, JAKARTA
INFO IMMEDIATE MOSCOW
笋
FCO TELNO 135 TO TOKYO: SECRETARY OF STATE'S VISIT TO THE FAR
EAST
1.
In the absence of Counsellor Hu, Head of FED spoke to Private Secretary to the Chinese Ambassador on 29 March. Davies said that he wished to inform the Chinese Embassy as a matter of courtesy that an announcement would be made on 30 March that the Foreign Secretary would be carrying out a tour of the Far East. Davies gave details of the itinerary. He added that the Foreign Secretary had very much in mind the MOU provision for twice yearly meetings of the two Foreign Ministers and looked forward to seeing Qian Qichen in due course at a time when both sides considered that such a meeting would be productive.
2. The Private Secretary took note and undertook to pass the message to the Ambassador. Counsellor Hu later called back allegedly to check the precise terms of the message. Davies repeated this more or less verbatim. Hu then enquired whether there was anything further. Davies said that there was not except to add THAT our reason for forewarning the Chinese was be- CAUSE of the inevitability of press speculation when the Foreign Secretary's itinerary became public. Hu expressed appreciation.
3. We are grateful to the Japanese for holding back their announcement (Tokyo telno 189). We see no problem with the timing of the embargoed briefing. We note that the Koreans will have announced the visit to Korea on 29 March. This has so far not been replayed in the British media.
HURD
YYYY
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3 OMAR 1993