SED to
confirm
please
WIAD 10
confirm
please
terms of the operation of an Open skies regime and our arms control credentials, UK has an interest in following US and permitting as much access to its territory as possible. (Such an approach may also help consolidate our bid to play a significant role in the conduct of NATO inspections.) The Cyprus SBAs and Gibraltar should not cause us difficulty: they are to be covered in the CFE agreement, including the aerial aspects of verification. There should not be insuperable local sensitivities the SBAs could be overflown without infringing Cypriot airspace (though as a matter of courtesy we would tell the Cypriots what was proposed) and as NATO members will undertake not to overfly each other's territory, there should not be sovereignty disputes. The question of inclusion of our Caribbean territories rests more on political factors than security ones: in the spirit of openness we should agree to include them. We would be obliged to inform, but not seek permission from, local governments in advance. I recommend that, notwithstanding the French and Dutch positions described above, we indicate our willingness at Ottawa to include Bermuda and the Caribbean territories but say that before we can make a definitive commitment we shall need to consult their local governments.
6. The Open Skies delegation have asked about more remote territories: we would, I judge, be on reasonable ground if we stated that the Falklands and other territories (eg BIOT) are not involved in the arms control agreements currently being negotiated; are not part of the envisaged geographical scope (North America, Asia or Europe) and therefore should not be covered. we could preserve our commitment to maximum openness while avoiding immediate problems by offering to reconsider territorial extension as and when we assume global arms control commitments (chiefly in respect of Chemical Weapons in the case of UK) This argument would be justifiable under the Basic Elements paper (as described in para 5 above) and by other allies' intended practice.
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7. The biggest difficulties arise with Hong Kong which is not covered under any interpretation of geographical scope.
respect of the wre nod wanted to include Hong Kong, would we want to extend this beyond
(the open shies theaty is of unlimited dramation
this
saved only be in
(in respit)
under the 1984
up to 1997 International commitments for Hong Kong must,
agreement, be discussed with the Chinese in advance. They are
(@grend in principle
JD
New
HDBADG
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