DRAFT LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO THE FOUR PARTY LEADERS

1. I have been most impressed by the determined and imaginative efforts which have been made by all the Parties to find a way in which the potential of the Talks process could be fully exploited.

2. This reflects the conscientious and courageous way in which you and your colleagues have been seeking for so long, in consultation with the Government (which has in turn consulted the Irish Government), to find a basis on which all the issues relevant to achieving a generally satisfactory political accommodation could be discussed by all those directly affected and in a way which protected all their essential political interests.

3. It also reflects the enormous investment of political capital and sheer hard work which each of the Parties has made. The Talks which resumed on 29 April have been intensive by any standard and there has been genuine engagement on all sides. The issues which arose from the Common Themes and Common Principles papers and from the Parties proposals for new political institutions have all been thoroughly aired.

4. A considerable amount of common ground has emerged from that process, as the 10 June report of the sub-Committee confirms. There remain significant areas on which there is not full agreement. The question we now all face is whether the area of common ground can be expanded without launching the later strands of the Talks, and whether the point has been reached at which it would be appropriate for me formally to propose that that should now happen.

5. I am very conscious that the terms of the 26 March statement place the responsibility for taking the latter decision squarely on my shoulders. I appreciate that it may be difficult for some Party leaders to agree that I should now exercise the discretion I have been given, but equally I sense that there is a general readiness to move forward if at all possible. We must all be conscious of the deep desire within the community that the Talks should not falter at this hurdle.

6. I have reviewed the ground covered in the Talks very carefully and pondered the points which you and the other party leaders have put to me, collectively and individually, and have concluded that it would be right for me, once you have had a chance to give me your reactions, to make a statement in the terms of the attached draft.

7. I should be glad to have a word with you about the reasoning which has led me to this conclusion, but without engaging in textual barter. It would also be helpful to have your reactions to what I propose to do. My belief is that we now have the prospect, as the 26 March 1991 statement recognised, of finding a way to give adequate expression to the totality of relationships on these islands on a basis which all would find acceptable, and, in relation to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, to provide a basis for a new and more broadly based agreement or structure arrived at through direct discussion and negotiation between all the parties concerned.

8. I look forward to hearing from you.