TNAG-1468-FCO40-1997-Visits-by-members-of-the-Office-of-the-Unofficial-Members-of-1986 — Page 23

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Dear Charles

CONFIDENTIAL

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

8 September 1986

Hong Kong: Call by the Governor and

Members of the Executive Council

The Governor and members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong will call on the Prime Minister on Wednesday 10 September. They will have met Mr Renton on the previous day, and they will call on the Foreign Secretary on 11 September, after his return from Washington.

I enclose briefing for the call on the Prime Minister. You will note that the Governor and the Unofficials will be accompanied by two official members of ExCo, as well as by two other supporting officials from the Hong Kong Government. Two of the Unofficials, Sir Michael Sandberg and Mr Oswald Cheung, will be returning at the end of the year.

The calls on Ministers were planned, at a time when there are no particularly contentious issues between London and Hong Kong, with the general objective of demonstrating HMG's continued commitment to Hong Kong's future and continued appreciation of ExCo's advice. They will offer a good opportunity to discuss the future constitutional development of Hong Kong, which will be the subject of a review by the Hong Kong Government in 1987 and which the Governor discussed with senior Chinese in Peking last week. The Governor and the Unofficials intend to brief the Prime Minister on the situation in Hong Kong and progress over Chinese drafting of the Basic Law for the territory after 1997. They will emphasise the importance of HMG maintaining a close and visible interest in Hong Kong and in the content of the Basic Law. They will wish to discuss our informal dialogue with the Chinese about future constitutional development in

Hong Kong.

CONFIDENTIAL

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