TNAG-2798-FCO40-4038-Hong-Kong-six-monthly-meetings-of-foreign-ministers-1993 — Page 38

CONFIDENTIAL

28

066544

MDHOAN 3037

CONFIDENTIAL

FM FCO

TO IMMEDIATE PEKING

TELNO 292

OF 181812Z MAY 93

AND TO IMMEDIATE HONG KONG

HKC 021/1

***

#4

1. MAY 1993

OK C

INFO IMMEDIATE UKREP JLG HONG KONG

FOLLOWING FOR CHARGE FROM HUM,

AUSS

COP

Momentlity meeting

бл

HONG KONG PLEASE PASS TO SIR R MCLAREN AND RICKETTS (VISITING)

PROPOSED BILATERAL MEETING WITH THE CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER

1.

When I spoke to the Ambassador on the telephone on 17 May I told him to expect instructions to approach the MFA and explore the possibility of a brief bilateral meeting between the Secretary of State and Qian Qichen, on the assumption that both would be in New York on 21 May for the proposed meeting of the Security Council at Foreign Minister level. Since then, as you will have gathered, it has become clear that the Security Council meeting will not take place: the question of a bilateral therefore does not arise.

2.

We have however given some thought at official level to the possible alternative options. If the provisions of the airport MOU are to be met (and admittedly the Chinese have shown no more urgency about this than we have done) there should be a second meeting within the period of 12 months from the last meeting in September 1992. In practice this would mean a meeting in June or July. We are not however aware of any multilateral occasion in this period which would naturally bring the Secretary of State and Qian together: and we assume that the likelihood of a further visit by Qian to this part of the world is remote. I think we are all agreed about the potential problems in any visit to Peking while the negotiations on Hong Kong are continuing their course.

3.

One option would of course be to continue to let the whole matter slide. Another possibility could be to make use of the Secretary of State's visit to Tokyo for the G7 Summit between 7 and 9 July. We assume however that it would be difficult to tempt Qian to a meeting on neutral ground in the Far East. He would be more likely to insist that the Secretary of State visit

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CONFIDENTIAL