Eastern Dept
will send copy серд
CONFIDENTIAL
FM FCO
TELNO 68
TO PRIORITY HONG KONG
OF 251648Z JANUARY 93
Mr
CONFIDENTIAL
& Moscow.
HKD 2.00/5
RECERC
2 7 JAN 1993
10453
12
MDLOAN 6300
TOP COPYD Q DIST?
Woodrow
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HONG KONG TELNO 93:
RUS
ac Protor & Dest муз
26/1.
RUSSIAN CONSULATE IN HONG KONG
1. Thank you for consulting us on the possible imposition of a ceiling on the number of Russian staff at the new consulate, particularly as the situation on ceilings is now substantially different from that when Bradley wrote on 4 November.
2.
As TUR mentions, we are moving towards the removal of the ceiling in London and the Russians are aware of this. We believe it would be illogical to impose a ceiling at this stage in Hong Kong. The Russians would see in this (with justification) an unfriendly signal, out of keeping with the development of the rest of our relations.
3. There are also practical problems. When we imposed the original ceiling here we knew the size of the existing official community, including the Embassy, and could tailor the ceiling accordingly. To try to tell the Russians at the outset what size their mission should be would be seen as heavy-handed and it would be difficult to gauge what is reasonable while also effectively excluding undesirables.
4. A major underlying reason for our abandoning the ceiling here is that financial stringency has forced the Russians to reduce their staffing levels so much that the ceiling no longer serves its original purpose. For the same reason, it is highly unlikely that the Russians will send an extravagantly large mission to Hong Kong. Our ceiling served its purpose in reducing the size of an existing intelligence community: it would be a very blunt instrument applied to the exclusion of one or two potential undesirables in a new and small mission.
5. In sum, we do not think that the clear political costs in imposing the ceiling would justify the uncertain security benefits. Instead we prefer the option mentioned in paragraph 4 of Sweeney's letter of 27 November to Woodrow which HKD copied to you, that visa requests for additional Russian staff after the
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