TNAG-2346-FCO40-3415-Political-relations-between-Hong-Kong--Japan-and-China-1991 — Page 40

ASEAN.

CONFIDENTIAL

7.

In response to a question from Sir John Coles, Mr Tanino said

that Japan had no fixed notions about the membership of the

reconstruction conference.

Would UK be represented? Sir John Coles

Our

said he was sure that we would. He was disturbed to hear of

Sihanouk's veiled threats over representation in Phnom Penh.

representative (whose precise title had not yet been decided) would

be accredited to the SNC from mid-November, with a very small staff.

We had not decided what we would do after the elections. Sihanouk

had made no such threats to us. Mr Colvin said that we had a

guarantee of privileges from Sihanouk, which should be sufficient.

No distinction was being drawn between Embassies and other Missions.

Mr Tanino said that the Japanese had already lost a piece of land

for their office that had been alloted to them by the Hun-Sen

regime. Mr Inagawa was a Khmer expert, and a former student

Khieu Samphan.

of

Vietnam

8. Mr Tanino said Japan was considering sending officials to Hanoi

to assess the economic situation and begin a dialogue on ways of

resuming assistance. But this was not going to be easy. There were debt arrears of Yen 20 billion including interest. The Vietnamese

said that they were not responsible for the interest from 1979, because the Yen credit had been stopped unilaterally. They wanted

to agree a new Yen credit. It would take at least six months to

resolve this issue. The US were very relieved. Secondly, if Vietnam violated the peace agreement, Japan would have to review its aid policy, and terminate it if necessary. The Japanese, however, disagreed with the US on IMF lending. Japan thought the time had

come for the IMF to decide how to deal with Vietnam. Japan did not oppose lending, unlike the US. But Mr Watanabe, a possible candidate for the MFA after the LDP leadership/Prime Ministership

election, was unconvinced.

Sir John Coles said the UK saw the situation in very much the

same terms. There was a new tone in the Vietnamese Government. The

UK had announced a new aid programme. High level visits were also

9.

CONFIDENTIAL