TNAG-0895-FCO40-1105-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 276

Mr Cortazzi

GENEVA CONFERENCE

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Mrwowym

1. The Netherlands Charge d'Affaires, Mr Schaapveld, called on Mr Blaker on 18 July to convey an urgent message from his Government. Mr Schaapveld said that the Netherlands Government fully understood the British attitude on the Geneva Conference, in particular our indignation at the behaviour of the Vietnamese Government and their culpability for the exodus of the refugees. Nonetheless the Netherlands Government wished to appeal urgently to Lord Carrington not to place excessive emphasis on the political aspects of the problem in his statement to the Conference. If the Secretary of State's speech was too strongly political, there was a risk that the Conference would be jeopardised. In the view of the Netherlands Government there could be no solution to the problem without the cooperation and participation of Vietnam. If we criticised them too much they would be uncooperative.

2. Mr Blaker said that we understood the point which the Netherlands Government wished to convey. We had no intention of wrecking the Conference or provoking a walk out by Vietnam. We accepted that Dr Waldheim had called a conference which would be primarily humanitarian. But we considered that the political aspect could not be avoided entirely. And people in this country would simply not understand if Lord Carrington said nothing about the causes of the problem in his speech. It was a question of balance but we thought it vitally important to register Vietnamese responsibility. We were considering the possibility of a statement by like-minded' countries at the end of the Conference. Whether or not we would wish to encourage such a statement would depend on developments at the Conference. We were also considering the possibility of action at the UN either in the Security Council or in the General Assembly. Mr Schaapveld was grateful

for Mr Blaker's comments.

19 July 1979

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C A Munro PS/Mr Blaker

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PS PS/LPS

Mr Flower

SEAD

HKGD

UND