COVERING CONFIDENTIAL
play. It may also mean looking further at the question of programme aid, on which I see the French approached you at the Sri Lanka Aid Group. As you will see from the attached submission, it is proposed that the next round of negotiations with the Vietnamese should take place after the first group of non-voluntary returnees have gone back. This does not however give us a great deal of time: on the other hand, it may be difficult to have meaningful discussions with British voluntary agencies until the principle of non-voluntary repatriation has been shown to work. You will need therefore to agree a sensible timing with SEAD.
6. As ODA will be responsible for this money, it follows that we will have to be more directly involved in policy formulation and in negotiation with the Vietnamese than hitherto. We shall have to consider how to organise ourselves to deal with this additional load.
7. It was also agreed at our meeting last week that we should put forward an outline proposal in the current Unallocated Reserve exercise for a modest TC programme to Vietnam. As already discussed with Hanoi, this would be essentially a training/ELT programme, and I should have thought that for 1990/91 a sum of £100,000 or so would be quite enough. Nevertheless, we would be opening up a continuing programme, and Ministers would need to think carefully before embarking on this course (it might also need to be cleared with No.10). I should be grateful if you could formulate an appropriate bid in consultation with SEAD.
R GM Manning
30 October 1989
COVERING CONFIDENTIAL
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.