CONFIDENTIAL
- 7
the Afghan problem was for all countries to support the struggle
of the Afghan people. The Soviet Union would then be forced to
recognise its inability to control Afghanistan and consequently
withdraw. The Chinese Government believed that the caution that
the Soviet Union had so far displayed in Poland was partly due to
the lessons of Afghanistan. Conditions were not yet ripe for a
resolution of the Afghanistan question since this required a
complete withdrawal of troops which the Soviet Union had not
yet been forced to carry out. China believed that while Poland
had now become the focus of world attention the issues of
Afghanistan and Kampuchea should not be overshadowed. Real
support and assistance should be given to the Afghan people in
their just struggle. The events of the past two years had shown that they possessed sufficient determination eventually to drive
out Soviet forces. But in order to make the Soviet Union behave
more prudently, Western Europe should adopt a more robust policy
on Kampuchea.
13.
Mr Atkins said that the views of Britain and China on
Afghanistan were very similar. There was no doubt that the
Russians had carried out pure naked aggression. The British
Government had information that the Soviet Union were increasing
their troops in Afghanistan. He believed that they had misinter-
preted the Afghan people and misread the difficulties of bringing
Afghanistan under control. The Russians wanted world opinion
to forget about Afghanistan, but the West was continuing in fora
such as the UN to bring the problem to the forefront of attention.
No opportunity should be missed to demonstrate world disapproval
to the Soviet Union. Britain agreed that the course of events
so far had probably led Soviet leaders to hold back to some
extent in Poland.
14.
Mr Atkins asked about the current state of Sino-US
relations. Mr Zhang said that these had developed steadily since
the establishment of diplomatic relations, but there had neverthe-
less always been the shadow case by the issue of arms sales to
Taiwan. Taiwan was a province of China and an inalienable part
of Chinese territory. China had always strongly opposed arms
CONFIDENTIAL
/sales
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.