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CONFIDENTIAL
MACAO
1. Ambassador Medina (the chief Portuguese negotiator) gave a Community briefing at the MFA this afternoon on the Sino- Portuguese agreement. Ambassador Cutileiro (Political Director) presided.
2.
He described the course of the negotiations and the content of the agreement in standard terms, and invited questions. Chief interest centred on the nationality provisions - cf the Portuguese Foreign Minister's briefing reported in Peking telegram No 633. Medina said that in the course of the negotiations the Chinese had proposed various formulae which would have obliged the Macanese to choose Chinese nationality if they wished to secure right of residence. The Portuguese could not accept this, and the final agreement had been a compromise after 1999 the Portuguese would still be able to decide who was entitled to Portuguese citizenship, while the Chinese would decide who was Chinese. Throughout the negotiations the Chinese had preferred to talk of "identity" and "travel" documents, rather than passports; but Article 9 of Annex 1 to the agreement ensured that Macanese residents holding Portuguese passports would have freedom to enter and leave Macao and they would enjoy Portuguese consular protection outside Macao and China.
3. Ambassador Medina said that, of Macao's population of around 450,000, some 90,000 could claim Portuguese citizenship and of these 62,000 had been issued with passports. I asked how much increase he expected in the number of Portuguese passport- holders in the period up to 1999; and whether, bearing in mind what had been said during the Portuguese accession negotiations, the Portuguese authorities envisaged limiting the access of these passport-holders to the EC. He replied that the balance of the 90,000 Portuguese might in theory apply for passports, but he would envisage only a very limited number of additional applications from those who had not already established their Portuguese citizenship. There was little scope for this, since the Portuguese nationality law of 1981 had substituted the "jus sanguinis" for "jus solis" as the basis of Portuguese nationality. My second question did not fall within his competence as leader of the negotiating team. He would simply comment from personal contacts in Macao that few, if any, Macanese seemed attracted to Europe, with the exception of the older generation of administrators who had relatives in Portugal and might want to return there. The more go-ahead looked for their economic opportunities towards the Pacific to such countries as Canada, Australia or Singapore.
4. In answer to further questions, Ambassador Medina thought there was no reason to be concerned about the position of the Roman Catholic Church after 1999. The Chinese were not bothered by the fact that the fall of Prof Cavaco Silva's Government would delay ratification of the agreement until the autumn.
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