(iii) We wonder whether it would be useful in
certain of the countries, in which a member of the
Nind as volunteered to act, for that member to speak
in the name of the other Community embassies
represented in the capital concerned, as well as in
the name of the Contact Group. There are certain
difficulties, eg French insistence on acting
bilaterally and the fact that Luxembourg is among
those countries that have not yet ratified all the
Conventions. Moreover, you should know that a UK
proposal in POCO on 16/17 November 1977 for concerted
action of this kind by the Nine was not taken up at
the time. Nevertheless, we think it would be worth
discussing this possibility further with delegations
of the five other members of the Nine that are
participating in the Contact Group: Belgium, France,
Germany, Italy, Netherlands. To facilitate matters,
the Dutch might be asked to get Denmark, Ireland
and Luxembourg into the Contact Group; but this would
not be essential to implement this idea, since in
many capitals these smaller members of the Community
would not have resident representatives.
(iv) We agree with the US that there is no need
in
to lobby/countries which have ratified the Hague
and Montreal but not the Tokyo Conventions. This
is because Hague and Montreal require states to take
action which goes beyond the requirements under Tokyo.
Failure to ratify Tokyo does not therefore cause us
concern.
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