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VISIT TO MOSCOW BY MR MORRIS (FED) : TALKS ON NORTH EAST ASIA
HONG KONG
BACKGROUND BRIEF
1.
Sir J Coles held a meeting with officials from the Russian Foreign Ministry in London at the end of March. Discussions included the proposed setting up of a Consulate General in Hong Kong by the Russians and visa free access to Hong Kong by Aeroflot crews and flight attendants.
The
2. The Russians indicated that in about 3 to 4 months time they would be sending three diplomats to Hong Kong to set up their mission. One of these diplomats would be temporarily in charge pending the appointment of a consul General. mission would then be slowly built up to ten consular officers. We probed the reason for wanting such a large mission and whether it would be possible to find the funds given the high costs in Hong Kong. The Russians acknowledged that they had been surprised by the expense of operating in Hong Kong and indicated that the goal of 10 consular officers was a distincly long term one. The emphasis of their work would be on trade and commerce but there would also be political and consular work. Up to the present time no visa applications for Russian diplomats going to Hong Kong have
been received.
3. The Russians requested visa free access to Hong Kong by Aeroflot crews. We were able to inform them that the Hong Kong Government had agreed to implement this unilaterally straight away, (ie before Cathay Pacific started flying to Moscow). In return HKG only required that, as for other airlines, the full names and dates of birth of crew members be included in the Aeroflot flight manifests.
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