159. Minutes of the Secretary of State’s Staff Meeting, Washington, June 17, 1976, 8:18 a.m.1 2
In Attendance - Thursday, June 17, 1976
- Secretary of State Kissinger - Chairman
- D Mr. Robinson
- P Mr. Habib
- M Mr. Eagleburger
- C Mr. Sonnenfeldt
- AF Mr. Schaufele
- ARA Mr. Rogers
- Mr. Shlaudeman (Asst. Secy.-designate, ARA)
- EA Mr. Miller
- EUR Mr. Hartman
- NEA Mr. Atherton
- INR Mr. Saunders
- S/P Mr. Lord
- EB Mr. Greenwald
- S/PRS Mr. Funseth
- PM Mr. Vest
- IO Mr. Lewis
- H Ambassador McCloskey
- L Mr. Leigh
- S/S Mr. Borg (Acting)
- S Mr. Aherne
- Ambassador L. Dean Brown
Indonesian Parliamentary Delegation to East Timor.
SECRETARY KISSINGER: Who’s going?
MR. MILLER: We.
SECRETARY KISSINGER: I mean which countries have accepted?
MR. MILLER: Well, as of now, practically no countries have accepted. All the EC 9 have turned it down. The UN Security Council President is going to turn it down; the Secretary-General of the UN will turn it down.
There will probably be a couple of ASEAN countries that will accept. Japan will probably accept if we accepted. Australia’s position is not yet known. The last time, when it was a Provisional Government of East Timor invitation, the Australians decided at the last minute not to accept.
I think our general feeling here — EUR, IO, and EA have sent you a memo to continue with L and H —
SECRETARY KISSINGER: You’re against it. (Laughter.)
MR. MILLER: I think the common recommendation, sir, is that we — since we would be quite isolated and since our participation would be rather high profile, [Page 3] that we would recommend against accepting — explaining to the Indonesians that we think we can obtain a broader base of support here in this country for, let’s say, our broader objectives with respect to Indonesia — including overall support to Timor, if we don’t have high-profile participation.
SECRETARY KISSINGER: Well, how about low-profile participation?
MR. MILLER: Well, we would intend, at the most, to send only the Political Counselor. We would not send an Ambassador. On the other hand, it now looks like there will be very few countries that do participate. So I think that regardless of what level of officer we send, it will be fairly high.
SECRETARY KISSINGER: Am I wrong in assuming if we don’t send somebody there will be some story out of it showing its disapproval of the United States action in regard to Timor?
MR. HABIB: Some of the countries won’t be going.
SECRETARY KISSINGER: Like who?
MR. HABIB: Singapore won’t attend — probably Thailand.
[Page 4]SECRETARY KISSINGER: Why is it in our interest to? I’m just trying to understand the rationale.
MR. MILLER: Well, I don’t think, sir, we think in terms of it weakening the Indonesians in Timor; but it’s trying to keep, let’s say, Congressional sentiment with regard to Indonesia from being rekindled which we think now is a fairly satisfactory condition.
MR. HABIB: There’s no need to take this action. The Indonesians are trying to get an international — and especially U.S. and other blessing — before they’ve done it. Let them go ahead and do what they’ve been doing. We have no objection. We’ve not objected in UN Security Council debates. They’re quite happy with the position we’ve taken. We’ve resumed, as you know, all of our normal relations with them; and there isn’t any problem involved.
SECRETARY KISSINGER: Not very willingly —
MR. HABIB: Sir?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: Not very willingly. Illegally and beautifully.
MR. MILLER: There’s no question that the Indonesians will participate. This will undoubtedly be mentioned in Malik’s conversations with you.
[Page 5]MR. HABIB: If we were to go pell-mell in the absence of really anybody else, I think that that could reopen the question of whether the Indonesians are acceptable.
MR. HABIB: The Japanese didn’t go last time and they’re hesitant to say who’s going. The Australians, I’m fairly sure, are not going to go, on the basis of what we know.
SECRETARY KISSINGER: Why don’t we ask the Australians?
MR. HABIB: They’ll tell us it’s under consideration.
MR. MILLER: The Australians asked either the Security Council or Waldheim to send a representative, and that hasn’t succeeded. So I think I would agree with Phil that they’re not likely. They dropped out at the last minute the last time, and they’re likely to drop out this time.
MR. HABIB: It’s a political problem.
MR. MILLER: We can ask them directly.
SECRETARY KISSINGER: Well, why don’t you ask them?
MR. HABIB: We will.