TNAG-1156-FCO40-1436-Visits-by-FCO-Ministers-to-Hong-Kong-1982 — Page 162

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remained and the process would take time. Son Sann's

'domineering' attitude was an obstacle; Sihanouk's attitude

was relatively amenable. Sihanouk took a 'neutral' attitude.

On 24 November Singapore had put forward a new proposal, which

set aside what had been agreed upon by the three factions in

Bangkok and, in effect, postponed the coalition process. This

was not beneficial. The key point in the Singapore proposal

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was the lack of agreed common principles or a political programme.

The proposal had come as a surprise to China and it was

difficult to understand. China thought that the coalition

members should have a common political programme and common

principles in order better to coordinate their anti-Vietnamese

struggle. But the coalition was an internal affair. Son Sann

and Sihanouk had already reacted to the Singapore proposal; the

DK would do so around 20 January. We would have to wait and

see what reply the DK would make.

7.

Mr Atkins said that the UK's analysis of the

Vietnamese situation was similar. Vietnam relied heavily on

the Soviet Union. The UK also agreed that the danger to South

East Asia did not come from China. Like China we favoured the

formation of a coalition of the Cambodian forces. But other

countries could not force the Cambodian factions to form a

coalition; we could only encourage them. It had been clear that

the meetings of the ad hoc committee had been running into

difficulties. The first essential in Cambodia was to get the

Vietnamese out. Without that nothing else could be achieved. Therefore if agreement on a coalition government proved difficult to achieve, it seemed sensible to take the matter

stage by stage. The Singapore proposal, supported by Son Sann

and Sihanouk, seemed to be a useful first step. We awaited

with interest the DK's answer. Mr Atkins added that he under-

stood that Prince Sihanouk was now in Peking.

8.

Mr Zhang agreed that the coalition was the Cambodians' internal affair; others could only encourage them, not make

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/decisions