Foreign & Commonwealth Office Diplomatic Wing
the 12 months to the Summer of 1992. A requirement for 49 new jobs was identified, while 84 were cut. The net savings which resulted have enabled us to staff new Posts in the former Soviet Union, former Yugoslavia, the Baltic States and elsewhere.
7.3 Examples of high priority geographical areas include
Western Europe, where many of the UK's main political and commercial interests now lie; eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union; North America; and the Pacific Rim in the Far East. Resources have already been earmarked to take account of changing priorities. This has required changes to the balance of
representation: new Posts have been opened in Alma Ata, Zagreb and Ljubljana; and ones are planned for Minsk and Ho Chi Minh City. The UK also has an officer based in the French Embassy in Tirana. Resources to meet these new demands have been
found through offsetting savings elsewhere. Mogadishu, Baghdad and Kabul are unmanned. There are pressures from the business community for diplomatic representation in other countries of the former Soviet Union. France and Germany are planning to establish representations in all the countries of the former Soviet Union.
8. Political and Economic Work
0.1
The FCO's political and economic work combines reporting and analysis of developments abroad with the maintenance of channels of communication and influence to promote UK interests with overseas governments, organisations and influential interest groups. The FCO's political and economic priority
Objective
Means
To influence the
Ratification of the Maastricht
development of the EC in Treaty in the UK; completion of a
ways which advance
British interests and
objectives
To promote enlargement of the Community and development of EC
liberal Single Market and ensuring that it works in practice; and working to ensure that the Community only acts where action is needed on the Community level
Promoting early and successful accession negotiations with EFTA applicants; early signature of
relations with central and agreements with Bulgaria and
eastern European
countries through
Association Agreements to prepare them for
eventual membership:
encouraging greater
liberalisation of world
trade
effective defensive
alliance, and to develop the WEU as a bridge
between NATO and
the EC
Romania; implementation of those already signed with the Visegrad countries; and a
successful conclusion to the GATT Uruguay Round
To maintain NATO as an Playing a full part in NATO,
including developing its role in peacekeeping; ensuring that it maintains a credible conventional and nuclear defensive capability; maintaining the transatlantic dimension of the Alliance; and building up the European contribution to effective defence through the WEU
activities for the next three years (1993-1996) reflect the long-term objectives identified in para 1.1. The UK can only achieve its foreign policy objectives through close cooperation and communication with others, in particular the United States and our EC, Commonwealth and OECD partners. Some of these priority tasks, and the means for their achievement, are as follows:
Objective
To promote a peaceful
settlement to the war in
the former Yugoslavia
To promote security
and stability in the
Middle East
Means
Implementation of UN Security
Council Resolutions and the
decisions of the London Conference
CSCE procedures for monitoring
human rights violations
Deployment of observers, monitors,
and peacekeeping forces (UNPROFOR)
Contributing monitors to the EC Monitoring Mission
Continuing to press Iraq to comply fully with the relevant Resolutions of the UN Security Council, inter alia through the continued imposition of sanctions and UN inspections.
Encouraging the states in the region to work towards a successful system of collective
security
Support for efforts to bring about a
settlement between Israel and its Arab neighbours
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