TNAG-1372-FCO40-1818-Ministerial-visits-from-the-UK-to-Hong-Kong-1985 — Page 234

Circular '0' 220/83 Home 'B' 113/83

RESTRICTED

:

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SWIH ONL

1 December 1983

PLANNING AND COORDINATION OF BILATERAL VISITS OVERSEAS BY THE PRIME MINISTER AND FCO MINISTERS

1. The present system for handling proposals for bilateral visits overseas by the Prime Minister and FCO Ministers is not entirely satisfactory. The Secretary of State has suggested that these visits need to be better targetted in order to fit overall foreign policy objectives, to avoid overlapping and to fill gaps. It has also been suggested that one department should be responsible for coordinating proposals for visits overseas and act as the central repository of information about past and prospective inward and outward visits.

The PUS has agreed two measures to meet these points:

2.

(i)

(ii)

The Ministerial Visits Committee (MVC) which has been moribund since 1980 will be revived in a new form. It will meet twice a year, in April and October, and consist of the DUSSS under the chairmanship of the PUS. Its task will be to advise the PUS on the recommendations he might put to the Secretary of State for visits overseas by the Prime Minister and by FCO Ministers. The committee will be served by a subcommittee under the chairmanship of the Head of Protocol Department and comprising geographical AUSSs, Planning Staff and Finance Department, with other AUSSS having the option to attend. The task of the subcommittee will be to take an overview of departmental proposals and ideas from the Private Offices and put forward an outline programme.

Protocol Department will be responsible to the committee for coordinating proposals for visits abroad by the Prime Minister and FCO Ministers and will act as the reference point for factual information about all high level outward and inward visits. The department will be expected to know not only about past and prospective visits by the Royal Family, the Prime Minister and FCO Ministers, but also about those by Ministers in other Government departments, by civic dignitaries, such as the Lord Mayor of London. and by important figures in the world of finance and industry. In practical terms the department will aim to produce its current · schedule of inward and outward Ministerial visits in a much expanded form.

3. The new arrangements are intended to supplement existing practice without undermining its flexibility. There will still be a need for Ministers to decide spontaneously, or in response to an invitation, to make a visit overseas, sometimes at short notice. Geographical departments will, of course, still be able to initiate proposals for visits overseas outside these arrangements if they judge it necessary. But the new arrangements should ensure a more balanced programme of Ministerial visits than at present. If it is to function effectively in its new role, Protocol Department will have to rely on FCO geographical departments and the private offices to keep if fully in the picture. It will get in touch with them on this shortly..

1

1

RESTRICTED