TNAG-1147-FCO40-1427-UK-policy-towards-South-East-Asia--including-Hong-Kong-1982 — Page 29

2.

DSR 11C

I have no doubt that there are plenty of other changes

that you will want to draw attention to I look forward in

particular to hearing what you (and your host government)

think about the Sino-Soviet and Vietnam triangular relation-

ship in the light of recent happenings in Moscow and elsewher

and about US interest in the region in the light of the

Weinberger visit. But I do hope that throughout our discus-

sions we will keep in mind our central theme the promotion

of British interests in the area which underlies the

list of questions which we telegraphed to you in advance in

order to help focus the debate.

You will also have seen the agenda we propose, in time

we hope to enable you to compose your ideas for the free-for

all session which will start when I stop and which is

designed to enable each of you to say in not more than

ten minutes how things look from the viewpoint of your post

and to flag any issues you particularly want to draw our

attention to in London. We circulated as well a paper on

Sino-Soviet competition for influence in this area by Bob

Longmire of Research Department. And you will have found wai

ing for you on arrival here a paper by Planning Staff

setting out our current policy assumptions and the backgrour

to them. I know that some of you have felt the need for suc

a statement of what we are about and that some would have

liked to have this in advance and to have had the opportunit

to comment on it. But we wanted to leave the field clear

for our key questions. You have the paper now; you are of

course free to comment now or after the meeting- we shall

/recast