TNAG-1297-FCO40-1652-Visit-by-Sir-Geoffrey-Howe--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-a-1984 — Page 317

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

А

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FROM: M Elliott

10

see 14

HKK 027/2

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

20 JAN 1984

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

No

R

Private Secretary

REGIST

Action Taken

2

CONFIDENTIAL

Cr 19/10

پر

Far Eastern Department

DATE: 18 January 1984

cc: PS/Mr Luce

zeli 1 2011

Mr. How

Tud. Keem, Mr. Moning,

ر

We must bear in

PS/PUS

Sir S Giffard, Heads of

Mission Section, POD Mr Donald

Han Protocol Dept

HKD

mind the posibility that the SoS might have

SECRETARY OF STATE'S VISIT TO THE FAR EAST

k yo ki Peking. Mr.

Denald

1. My submission of 4 January set out the case for a Far Eastern tour by the Secretary of State in April, and proposed an outline itinerary. Secretary of State's agreement that planning should proceed

is Your minute of 5 January recorded the io minuty

La

on that basis, but the dates could not be confirmed so long Ps

as there remained the possibility of a clash with a Foreign Affairs Council.

on this

2. UKRep Brussels telno 115 now confirms that the French have decided to stick to the original Foreign Affairs Council dates, and removes the impediment to a Far Eastern tour in the week before Easter.

3. We have made preliminary soundings of the Koreans and Japanese to establish whether a visit in this week would cause difficulties. The visit was also discussed with the Governor of Hong Kong during his recent visit to London. The main constraint on timing is in Korea, where the visit of the Belgian Prime Minister from 15-18 April and a state visit by the Emir of Qatar from 20-22 April dictate a rather earlier arrival by the Secretary of State on 19 April if at all possible. On this basis the itinerary suggested in my submission of 4 January would need to be somewhat revised, as follows:

4.

Saturday 14 April

Sunday 15 April

Tuesday 17 April (am)

Thursday 19 April (early am)

Saturday 21 April (am)

depart for Hong Kong (by VC10,

Bahrain and Colombo; total transit time 20 hours)

arrive in Hong Kong

fly to Tokyo (flying time 4 1/2 hours; arrive early afternoon)

fly to Seoul (flying time 2 1/2

hours; arrive before noon)

leave Seoul for UK.

The principal disadvantage of this arrangement is that the visit to Japan would be less than 48 hours. Sir H Cortazzi considers that the programme would be manageable on this basis, although not ideal. Given the timing constraints in Seoul, the only way of increasing the time in Tokyo would be to leave Hong Kong earlier (on the evening of Monday 16 April). The Governor's view, however, is that Sir G Howe should spend a full working day in Hong Kong and stay for dinner with unofficials on the Monday evening. We have consulted Sir H Cortazzi in Tokyo and Sir S Giffard; both consider that in the circumstances a visit to Japan of this length would be manageable.

It would permit

CONFIDENTIAL

/a full

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