TNAG-0940-FCO40-1159-Visits-by-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Ministers-and-officials-t-1980 — Page 16

CONFIDENTIAL

3

ཝཱ་

ramme suspended by the Laotians in 1977, and to which we haye had no response. (I see this exchange mirrors Mr Stewarts"..

report of his initial call on Soulivong in June).

6.

I also had a chance meeting, at a farewell party for the FAO representative given by a Swiss businessman, with one of

the Soviet political counsellors, Mr G Kissilev, one of the

'smooth' Russians, accompanied by his wife, and with previous postings in Phnom Penh (as Tass Correspondent) in the early 1970's and in Vientiane. Kisselev was about 40, spoke good

working French, and professed curiosity about the British

attitude to Cambodia. I referred him to Sir A Parsons' New

York speech, and we had a dialogue of the deaf on non-inter-

vention and self-determination. Kisselev made no attempt to

defend the credentials of the Heng Samrin regime itself, and admitted that Heng Samrin himself was part of the Vietnamese

said baggage ('figure du sac' in his words), but/we should all now leave it to the Cambodians to find their own salvation, albeit

in the new post-invasion circumstances.

7.

The other oddity of the visit to Vientiane was the simult-

aneous presence of a First Secretary from the French Embassy in Bangkok. Ostensibly there to visit the community (including French State pensioners), and check on the state of the empty French Compound and Cultural Centre etc., he was also tasked with examining the prospects of reopening a French representa-

The conclusion, I understand, was that the time might not be too far ahead when this would be possible,

tion.

Religion

8.

Vientiane was noticeably strewn with Buddhist monks,

nuns and novices. This was doubtless partly because of the

/significance

CONFIDENTIAL