TNAG-0511-FCO40-576-Visits-of-ships-from-Soviet-Union-to-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 15

Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1

A E Donald Esq Political Adviser HONG KONG

Telephone 01-

Your reference

Our reference

12 September 1974

Date

LAST

(

if

Der Alam,

NEXI

REF.

RUSSIAN DRAFT CONVENTION ON THE REGIME OF MARINE VESSELS IN FOREIGN PORTS

1. Particularly in view of my letter HKK 21/4 of 27 August, you should know of the existence of the enclosed draft Convention, which the Soviet Union intends to lay before the forthcoming 33rd Session of the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organisation to be held on 2 October.

2.

We do not expect the draft to come to anything in the near future. However, it is full of noble principles which one could not easily reject in public, and the most likely outcome on 2 October is that it will be referred to IMCO's legal committee.

3.

This might well be the end of it. But if an agreed Convention does finally emerge, it might still contain some provisions (see, for example, the present Article 2) which could be difficult for Hong Kong. In the last resort we could attempt to restrict the application of the Convention so as to exclude Hong Kong; but this could have undesirable political implications, particularly if the Convention was ratified by China.

14.

Meanwhile, we should be glad to know how you see the draft as it stands. I do not suggest that you need to consider it in detail at this stage; but you may be able to confirm fairly easily that some of the draft Articles in their present form would cause you difficulty.

Yours ever,

Andread

A C Stuart

Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Dept.

Сс

Mr Pendleton, M&TD

sitent: Mr Meyer, EESD

CONFIDENTIAL

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