TNAG-1787-FCO40-2547-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-general-1988 — Page 131

FOREIGE SEC.- MADRID PRESS CONFEREICH

FOREIGN SECRETARY (CONTD);

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ΠΑΤΟ 10 JUNE 1988

there

On the first part of your question, I think that yes, must be some disappointment at the decision to see the removal of the United States aircraft, but that sits alongside the enormous satisfaction at the outcome of Spain's understandably long debate on her role in NATO and I think one has to look at both these things

together.

For those of us who have been members of the Alliance from the outset and have long been accustomed to having large numbers of United States aircraft based in many places in the United Kingdom, it must be surprising to find a decision to join the Alliance accompanied by a decision to see the aircraft move away, but when you look at it as a package deal, as a conclusion which commits Spain firmly to the Alliance and we are moving ahead from that, then

I think it is good news all round.

QUESTION (ABC):

This morning, you had breakfast with your Spanish colleague, Fernandez Ordonez (phon). Did you get any progress on the programme of coordination between Spanish forces and Allied forces in

Gibraltar?