Internal Soviet Guide for Planned Sino-Soviet Border Security Negotiations in 1990

The Agreement on the guiding principles for the mutual reduction of armed forces and the strengthening of confidence in the military field in the Soviet-Chinese border region signed in Moscow by the ministers of foreign affairs of the USSR and PRC during the visit of PRC Premier Li Peng put the questions of direct preparations for negotiations for its realization on the agenda.

For political considerations it seems advisable to impart the necessary movement and purposeful direction to the development and agreement with the Chinese side of the questions of an organizational and procedural plan as the preparatory stage for the beginning of specific [predmetnye] Soviet-Chinese negotiations.

The following main questions could be developed and discussed at the private [v uzkom sostave] meeting of the working groups of diplomatic and military experts in Beijing in June of this year proposed by the Chinese side:

1. The time and place of holding the next round of negotiations; the regulation of the rounds of negotiations in the future;

2. The agreement of the composition of the sides' delegations, the formation of the working groups, and the procedure for holding plenary sessions;

3. The setting of the agenda of the first round of negotiations;

4. An exchange of lists of terms requiring the working out of a common understanding as applied to future specific Agreements about a reduction of armed forces.

5. The format of future agreements and understandings;

6. Other organizational and procedural questions.

The main ideas about the above questions.

I. Propose beginning the Soviet-Chinese negotiations in Moscow no later than September-October 1990. Coordinate the rules of procedure of the negotiations which would include a series of rounds conducted alternately in Moscow and Beijing four or five times a year, each round lasting four to six weeks.

II. It seems advisable to begin the negotiations with the same group of diplomatic and military experts who participated in the preparation of the Agreement about the guiding principles. Provide for the creation of at least two working groups: one for the development and coordination of the primary measures for the mutual reduction of armed forces, and the second for the development and coordination of confidence-building measures and monitoring.

III. Set the priority of the questions to be discussed at the first round of the negotiations.

Based on the military and political conditions which have objectively formed, it seems to us that a discussion of questions in the following order would meet our interests:

1. An agreement of the list of components of armed forces and conventional weapons to be reduced.

2. A determination of the procedure for the exchange of information about the components which covers the opposing forces of the parties in the Soviet-Chinese border region.

It might be suggested to the Chinese side to conduct an exchange of basic data on the order of battle, deployment, and personnel strength, and the quantity of weapons and military equipment for the agreed components of the reduction covering contiguous military districts: on the Soviet side, the northeast part of the Turkestan Military District [MD], the Trans-Baikal MD, and the Far East MD (less the island and peninsula zone, and the Maritime Territory); on the PRC side - the Lanzhou MD, the Shenyang MD, and the Beijing MD. In the event of Chinese disagreement to exchange information in such quantity propose exchanging [the following] information: on the Soviet side - the northeast part of the Turkestan MD, the eastern part of the Trans-Baikal MD, and the Far East MD (less the island and peninsula zone and the Maritime Territory); on the Chinese side - the Xinjiang MD, the Shenyang MD, and the northern part of the Beijing MD.

In the event the Chinese side rejects the proposed plan for holding the negotiations an exchange of basic data is possible after a determination of the geographic zones of the reduction for the agreed components of the reduction within these zones.

It is entirely possible that before the discussion of other questions the Chinese might propose conducting an exchange of information within the framework of the narrow zones of 100-200 km which they have repeatedly mentioned. In this event the logical sequence of the measures we are proposing should be pointed out to the Chinese side.

3. A determination of the criteria and parameters of the geographic zones of a mutual reduction of forces in the eastern and western sectors of the Soviet-Chinese border.

4. As these groups of questions are agreed propose to the Chinese side the submission for discussion at succeeding rounds of the specific parameters and time frames of the reduction of forces, the development of a set of confidence-building measures, and the means of monitoring.

IV. We think that it is advisable to accomplish the coordination of the list of terms applied to future specific agreements at the private meeting of working groups (June of this year).

V. Propose to the Chinese side that the agreement about a mutual reduction of armed forces be finalized in the form of a treaty with the attachment to it of a number of protocols which will be determined in the course of the negotiations.