TNAG-2239-FCO40-3218-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Royal-Navy-presence-1991 — Page 138

CONFIDENTIAL

ANNEX A

HONG KONG PATROL CRAFT: MOD/HONG KONG GOVERNMENT MEETING:

SUMMARY OF POSITION REACHED

1. Officials of the UK MOD and the Hong Kong government met on

30 and 31 May 1991 to discuss the possibility that the RN

patrol craft should be retained in Hong Kong after 1992. The

FCO were represented.

2. The Hong Kong government made it clear that any proposal

which breached the current 65%/35% share of costs as agreed in

the 1988 DCA and/or which involved going to the Finance

Committee of LEGCO would cause grave political difficulty in Hong Kong. They believed that the retention of the patrol craft was of major political significance in Hong Kong and

there was a continuing military rationale for retaining the patrol craft after 1992 to carry out tasks specified in the

1988 DCA. Their view was that the only solution lay in a

combination of reducing the number of patrol craft from three

to two and finding further financial savings in the overall

cost of the garrison.

3. The Ministry of Defence re-iterated their position which

was that there had been no change in the military factors

which had led to the withdrawal plan agreed in 1987. There was

no military requirement for retaining the patrol craft after 1992 and no funds were available for doing so within a defence budget that was already severely overstretched. Although the

vessels could continue to carry out useful tasks, the case for

retention was essentially political and MOD could only agree

to this if at least the bulk of the extra costs that would

fall on the defence budget were met from other sources. In response to a Hong Kong government suggestion that the UK had a wider political commitment to Hong Kong, the Ministry of

Defence said that they could not offer any encouragement that

CONFIDENTIAL