RESTRICTED 81 RY EP 1972 BRITISH EMBASSY ABU DHABI 3 September 1972 A E Saunders Esq OBE DUBAI MID 223/03 Metair . 15 der Richix-try's hv7 8/ix re) (am copy PAT TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE 1. I am sending you separately a copy of a letter from Norman Hillier-Fry proposing that he should visit Abu Dhabi, between 15 and 17 November in the course of tour of the area.. His itinerary will allow one working day, Thursday 16 November, in Abu Dhabi, which should be sufficient for talks with this branch of the Embassy and perhaps for a call on the MFA. It does not, however, include a stop at Dubai, which is a pity since almost all our technical assistance is likely to be in the Northern Emirates; but since it is not Hillier-Fry's intention to see projects on the ground, you may agree that it is not necessary to ask him to revise his itinerary. 2. The Ambassador is due from leave in the latter half of October andiis likely to be in Abu Dhabi at the timeof the visit. If you wished to be here for any talks, it would on present planning need a special trip from Dubai. 3. I hope that by November we shall have achieved some progress towards a conventional technical assistance programme for the UAE. We still await a reply to our Note of 28 June to the MFA setting out what we are prepared to do in future. When I paid a courtesy call on the Under Secretary at the MFA about ten days ago he volunteered the information that our proposals were acceptable and that the Ministry would be writing to us in this sense and agreeing to our invitation for further discussions. We still await the promised reply.. A Ibbott cc: W N Hillier-Fry Esq, ODA JC Rowley Esq, MEDD PRH Wright Esq, MED, 700 RESTRICTED
