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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
13 August 1982
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Hick
MH Morgan Esq CMG MANILA
0211
Dear Michael
PLANNING PAPER: ASEAN
1.
P
Maus 1317
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I explained to you when we met last month how it had come about that you had not had a reply to your suggestion that the Planning Staff should consider producing an up-to- date assessment of the prospects for ASEAN.
2. As I said, after some research among the available material bearing on that theme, we eventually concluded that what was probably most needed was for us to follow up the decision taken at the 1980 South East Asian Heads of Mission Meeting, but alas not implemented, to up-date the paper on
'British Policy towards the Countries of ASEAN' which was originally drawn up by SEAD in 1978 and has only once been amended since, and then only on points of detail, when the new Government came to power in 1979.
3. But a simple up-date won't really suffice; last month's FCO/SOAS seminar on 'ASEAN and Indochina', of which we shall be sending you a separate account, convinced us that a complete re-write of that paper is now called for. We are accordingly putting the preparation of a new paper in hand with a view in particular to its being available in good time for the Heads of Mission Meeting which we are planning for December, probably in Bangkok, with Lord Belstead in the chair - more of which anon. With this in mind, the most useful approach might be for the paper to be addressed to the inter-relationship between UK interests in South East Asia and ASEAN's prospects - out of which I would hope we could distil some refurbished policy propositions for discussion at the December meeting. We shall be in touch as progress is made on it, and on the agenda.
Yours
Alan
A E Donald
cc:
PS/Lord Belstead PS/PUS
FED
HKGD
Planning Staff
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