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at least one country was pretty sure to be willing to negotiate an agreement seriously.
iii) Mr White recalled that at the last meeting it had been decided that higher priority should be given to making progress in Europe. He then gave a round up of progress over the last three months:
Italy the preliminary visit in October demonstrated a basis existed for negotiations.
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Spain substantial negotiations begun, good progress made, further talks in January.
Switzerland final text agreed, Mr Hurd and Swiss Ambassador to exchange letters in January.
France now showing interest in a bilateral agreement and a desire to talk.
Germany
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also showing similar interest.
Denmark
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has moved away from solely multilateral approach, now showing interest in a bilateral agreement and prepared to meet us.
Belgium - the Embassy reports that the Belgians have responded positively to their approaches for a preliminary meeting.
Netherlands
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willing to talk later in year when legislation has been passed.
Summing up Mr White said considerable progress had been made in negotiating agreements with European countries. A momentum now existed which must be maintained.
iv) Mr Edwards gave a brief report on the negotiations for the UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Drugs in Vienna. He said that he would circulate the text of the Convention in due course. He pointed out that Article 5 on confiscation and Article 3 on money laundering were strong and effective. He reported that the atmosphere at the meeting had been good, with a lot of enthuisiasm being shown and 43 countries had signed the Convention immediately. Mr Minter commented that the Convention could be usefully used as a lever to approach countries for bilateral agreements. Mr Edwards undertook to circulate a list of the countries that had signed the Convention. This will be reviewed against the Plan priority list to see if signature of the UN text could be used as Mr Minter had suggested.
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