TNAG-2241-FCO40-3222-Asia-Pacific-Economic-Cooperation-(APEC)-1991 — Page 85

The

Union an institutional locus in any Pacific security debate.

Japanese do not want to see any weakening of the stabilising US military presence in the region, which would put pressure on them to

play a greater military/political role (and thereby awake other

Asian nations' distrust).

4. The US have however identified APEC as a possible means of creating a sense of shared values among the disparate countries of the region, albeit at this stage solely in the economic sphere (relevant passage from speech by Solomon, Assistant US Secretary of State for Asia, given in San Diego in October 1990, attached).

乒

FAR EASTERN DEPARTMENT

7 JANUARY 1991

PD4ACJ/3