CONFIDENTIAL UK COMMS ONLY
065073 MDHOAN 57547
been made for a meeting at Foreign Minister level to be timely.
(ii) The MOU on Hong Kong's new Airport signed by the two Prime Ministers in September 1991 provides that the two Foreign Ministers should meet twice a year to discuss Hong Kong and other issues. It clearly makes sense for meetings to take place when they are likely to be useful.
(iii) Mr Hurd did not go to Peking to negotiate or to reach an agreement but to focus the negotiations on the essential points, and on the need to make faster progress.
(iv) deadlines.
We do not believe that it would be helpful to set But time is not unlimited and practical arrangements for the elections need to be made in good time. The Secretary of State and the Chinese Foreign Minister agreed to meet again in the margins of the UNGA in late September to review progress.
(v) Our aim remains to secure agreement on election arrangements that are open, fair and acceptable to the people of Hong Kong.
(vi)
Visit was well worthwhile.
But we now need to see practical progress in the talks on electoral issues, and also in the separate discussions in the Joint Liaison Group (on the technical details of a smooth transition) and the Airport Committee (dealing with Hong Kong's new Airport).
ADDITIONAL POINTS
4.
(i) focussed?
What are the essential issues on which Mr Hurd
The key areas on which negotiators now need to concentrate are the formation of the Election Committee (which will elect 10 members of the 1995 Legislative Council) and the Functional Constituencies (which will elect 30 members). Another matter which is of essential importance to us is that there should be clear and objective criteria for candidates standing in the 1995 elections to remain members of the legislature through 1997 until 1999 (the so-called through-train).
(ii)
visit?
Was Hong Kong involved in the Secretary of State's
Visit was made at Governor's suggestion and prepared at the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister which the Governor attended. The Secretary of State was accompanied to Peking by a senior Hong Kong official. Mr Hurd travelled on to Hong Kong on
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