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Iron on ARPF
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Lot 2411
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Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF)
interest in London
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At the request of the Canadian Commission I saw Mr Robert Wenman, member of the Canadian House of Commons, yesterday. What I had expected would be a briefing from me turned out to be a lengthy exposition from him about his own activities in the Far East over the last few years, and the proposed formation of the above organisation. (See attached papers)
Mr Wenman is closely involved (as the Chairman in some cases) with the Canadian Parliament's bilateral
2.
Parliamentary/Friendship Groups with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan
and the PRC.
3.
He gave me the attached paper on the APPF and sought my views on likely Chinese reactions. He had personally seen to it that the Memorandum of Understanding included a number of points which would give comfort to what he understood to be the Chinese sensitivities. Notable among these is the provision (numbered paragraph 4) that people can participate either as delegates of their Parliaments or in their personal capacity.
4.
They
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Mr Wenman had seen both Allen Lee and Martin Lee. were enthusiastic about the idea and keen to participate members of Hong Kong's LegCo. Mr Wenman drew some parallels with APEC and wanted to know how the HKG might view the whole idea. A first meeting was held in Singapore last September and
Both of these had subsequent meeting in Canberra in December. been preliminary discussion meetings rather than the inaugural meeting of the Forum itself. Wenman said he was keen that the Forum should be inclusive, and thought the inaugural meeting should not be held until a formula acceptable to all had been worked out. The China/Taiwan/Hong Kong problem was a key
consideration.
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