TNAG-1461-FCO40-1987-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-Hong-Kong--Gibraltar-and-1986 — Page 86

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associations are in their infancy, and neither our leading

Allies nor regional powers like Australia have shown a willingness to take over formal obligations that would increase their own defence outgoings and liabilities and

risk a "neo-colonial" stigma.

3 The arguments in favour of disengagement on the whole reflect a British national interest. Those against disengagement reflect a wider Western interest or changing attitudes to

decolonisation. Thus it has become simultaneously more costly

for the UK to maintain its parental relationship with the

dependencies, and more difficult to relinquish responsibility in

a way that would be viewed as responsible in the UK, in the

dependencies and by our major allies, particularly the US. How should the circle be squared?

III

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TERRITORIES UNDER CONSIDERATION IN THIS PAPER

Of the remaining 15 dependent territories there are several the future of which is constrained, or determined, by policy decisions already taken. Hong Kong, the Falklands (with their

dependencies) and Gibraltar are all sui generis, and especially

sensitive, cases and are excluded from further discussion in this

paper. So is the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and the

British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) where treaty obligations guarantee the US facilities until 2016 and in relation to which Ministers recently confirmed that there should be no major change

of status. These territories are not considered further in this

paper. Of course we must also avoid action in any of the

remaining nine dependent territories which could materially

prejudice our case on the sensitive or special ones listed above

(eg ceding to a foreign claim without regard for inhabitants

wishes). However the circumstances surrounding these nine

territories are sufficiently different to leave us reasonable

room for manoeuvre over their future without prejudicing the

position of the other six.

5 The focus of the rest of the paper will therefore be on the

nine dependencies in the Caribbean (Cayman Islands, British

Virgin Islands (BVI), Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), Montserrat

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