TNAG-2714-FCO40-3920-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 46

8494536249 P.14

FOREIGN AFFAIRS SELECT

14-JUL-1993 16:33

JAMES LEE

TRANSCRIPT B

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COMMITTEE

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MR. ALASTAIR GOODLAD

· 14 JULY 1993

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They have in recent years started to emerge more into the world and their foreign policy objectives are obviously connected with their domestic objectives. They want to see a greater level of

prosperity in the country and indeed they are doing and to that end they have seen fit to liberalise the economy internally but also to open it up to the outside world and we have encouraged their opening up to the outside world in the same way that we have encouraged their co-operation with the international community in attempting to promote peace and security and resolving disputes following the end of the Cold War and as I said earlier, we have

collaborated with them as permanent members of the Security

Council very closely on all the matters that have come before the

Security Council.

They have expressed reservations about what they see as the

extension of United Nations activity into new areas and they

continually stress the importance of national sovereigny but they haven't voted against Security Council resolutions;

abstained occasionally, the international response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait being the most important recent example.

they have

Their active involvement in United Nations diplomatic activity has pretty well been limited to Asia where they have played a

constructive role; they have contributed to the peacekeeping

operations in Camboda also in the Western Sahara, in monitoring

the Iraq ceasefire so it is not exclusively Asia but it is

predominantly Asia and they see, I think, their foreign policy

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