RESTRICTED
to let him have their views on Security Council reform by the end of June. The moment was approaching, Mr Tanaka implied, when countries would have to declare their hand. To date Japan had approached this matter very cautiously. They had had informal discussions with the Americans, especially with Mr Pickering, when he was US Representative at the Security Council. The latter had expressed some enthusiasm for Japanese membership but had always coupled his enthusiasm with a warning that the Japanese would have to devise a workable plan to achieve this. Mr Tanaka then said that his Ministry of Foreign Affairs were planning "close consultations" with Britain. and France on this subject. I asked what he had in mind. He clearly envisaged that the consultations would need to take place before June and said that the best context would probably be the regular UK/Japan consultations on UN matters. I merely noted this and then reiterated that our concern was that the Security Council should remain an effective instrument for the discharge of its responsibilities. A few years ago the Security Council had been ineffective. Now it was faced with the most challenging agenda in its history. Nothing should be done to weaken its capacity to handle the agenda.
HONG KONG
4.
I gave Mr Tanaka a general account of the position on Hong Kong. He said that the Japanese would continue to urge the Chinese to respond constructively and calmly to the Governor's proposals and to get into a dialogue with
us.
CAMBODIA
5.
On Cambodia, he said that for wider reasons Japan needed a success there. If the first peacekeeping operation in which Japanese troops had participated were a failure, the peacekeeping legislation itself could be prejudiced. The latest meeting of the Supreme National Council had been reasonably successful. The Japanese MFA was now reflecting on the long term. It seemed to them essential that there should be a continued UN presence. They did not know what to make of Mr Goulding's recent suggestion that Asian countries might provide a residual military presence. Surely they could not do this without
a UN mandate.
RESTRICTED
/6.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.