NFIDENT
Romania
Previous Reference: OC (89) 9.3
CONFIDENTIAL
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Government were taking, the problem of the Vietnamese boat people remained huge, and an important objective was to deter another rush of refugees from heading for Hong Kong when the weather improved.
THE FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH SECRETARY said that there had been large-scale unrest in Romania. This had been among the
ungarian minority in Transylvania rather than in the capital, charest. It had focussed on a Protestant pastor, Mr Laszlo
es, whom the Romanian authorities had tried to evict. A ber of the British Embassy in Bucharest had established that, far, nothing appeared to have happened to Mr Tokes.
It was no clear if the unrest would spread but it seemed unlikely to run through the population as a whole. The disturbances might mark the beginning of the end for President Ceausescu, although the end might take some time to arrive. The Soviet Foreign Minister Mr Eduard Shevardnadze, had told the Foreign and Commonwealth cretary the previous evening that he had no particular (information about what was happening in Romania.
NF!
Soviet Union
Previous Reference: ∞(89) 29.3
THE FOREIGN AND COMTALIH SECRETARY said that Mr Shevardnadze had been dining with the European Community Foreign Ministers and had given a fasor account of the difficulties which the Soviet system was exerencing. He had said that next year would be crucial in the Sonet leadership's battle for economic reform and it would by the essential to produce some benefits for consumers. Mr Shevardnadze had said that the scale of the Soviet Union's difficult was illustrated by the fact that a kilo of meat sold in the shops for 2 roubles cost 12 roubles to produce. The problem of economic adjustment were immense.
The Cabinet
-
Took note.
CO
COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
Education Council 14 December
said that the
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EDUCATION AND SCIEN only substantive item on the agenda of the Educate Council had been a five-year extension of the European Committction Scheme for the Mobility of University Students (ERASME) programme. Since the United Kingdom benefitted from this programme, his aim had been to secure the best possible terms for an extension and the result had been a good one.
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