CONFIDENTIAL
A
(ii) we should extend coverage to all our dependent territories (except Hong Kong) which could be claimed as lying within the boundaries of Europe, North America and Asia ie Gibraltar, the Sovereign Base Areas (SBAS) of Cyprus, Ascension Island, Diego Garcia, Bermuda and our Caribbean dependencies;
(iii) we should exclude Hong Kong on the grounds that it will
not be British for much longer;
(iv)
we should exclude the Falkland Islands and Pitcairn on // the grounds that they are outside the present geographical scope of the regime.
Interested Departments concur
Background and Argument
3. The question of what non-metropolitan territory should be included in an Open Skies regime has not so far been addressed in the negotiations. The NATO Basic Elements paper declared that "all the territories of the participating states in North America and Asia, as well as in Europe, will be open to aerial observation". The Western treaty text that was tabled in Ottawa on 16 February envisages listing the territory to be included for each state in an annex. Our delegation have now asked for instructions (Ottawa telno 166) on the scope of British territory in this context .
4. The original purpose of the territorial formulation was ensure that the whole of the United States and Canada and the whole of Soviet territory East of the Urals would be captured, ie that the Open Skies regime would not just focus on Europe. The purpose of the regime is both to promote transparency about military activities as a goal in its own right and to act as a verification complement to "other disarmament efforts". There is as yet no common understanding within NATO or with the Warsaw Pact over whether the geographical scope is to be limited to the three continents mentioned (though this interpretation is not unreasonable); but the Soviet Union has expressed interest in ensuring that military bases
HDBADG
CONFIDENTIAL
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Private notes are available after approval.