Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
02RANGOON1517
2002-11-25 09:10:00
SECRET
Embassy Rangoon
Cable title:  

BURMA AND IRAQ

Tags:  PREL ETRD BM IZ 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
S E C R E T RANGOON 001517 

SIPDIS

CINCPAC FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/25/2012
TAGS: PREL ETRD BM IZ
SUBJECT: BURMA AND IRAQ


Classified By: COM CARMEN M. MARTINEZ; REASON 1.5(D).

S E C R E T RANGOON 001517

SIPDIS

CINCPAC FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/25/2012
TAGS: PREL ETRD BM IZ
SUBJECT: BURMA AND IRAQ


Classified By: COM CARMEN M. MARTINEZ; REASON 1.5(D).


1. (S) Summary: An official Burmese delegation headed by
the Minister of Forestry traveled to Baghdad in March and
concluded agreements to cooperate with the Government of Iraq
on trade, banking and finance, oil and gas, scientific
research and technical issues, and in other areas. The
agreed minutes of the Burma-Iraq meetings, marked "Secret" by
the GOB, were presented to the Government of Burma in October
and obtained by Post in November. A copy will be pouched to
EAP/BCLTV. End Summary.


2. (S) The 4-6 March 2002 Baghdad meetings were an outgrowth
of the "Agreement on Trade, Economic, Scientific and
Technical Cooperation between the Government of the Union of
Myanmar and the Government of the Republic of Iraq" signed on
6 August 2001 in Baghdad, according to this document.

-- The seven-person Burmese delegation was lead by Aung
Phone, Minister of Forestry, and included the deputy minister
of energy, the Burmese ambassador to Egypt, and the managing
director of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd, a large
state-owned conglomerate.

-- The 23-member Iraqi side was led by the Minister of
Planning, Dr. Hassan Al-Khattab. The Burmese delegation was
also "received by" Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadhan,
Deputy Prime Minister Hekmat Al-Azawi and the ministers of
finance, trade, oil, and agriculture.


3. (S) The vague and wide-ranging agreement included pledges
to cooperate in such benign fields as honeybee breeding and
garbage disposal systems. The counter-trade proposal
suggested Burmese agricultural and other products be traded
for Iraqi "fertilizers, bitumen, and sulfer" (sic). The two
sides pledged to exchange "scientific and technical
information between specialized scientific research
institutions in both countries in the fields of irrigation
and water resources management." The minutes end with an
agreement to hold a second session of the Joint Committee in
Rangoon in March 2003.


4. (S) We note that the two dictatorships also agreed to
draft a bilateral agreement "concerning National News
Agencies, TV Broadcasting organizations" and to an "exchange
of training courses, on a reciprocal basis in the field of
media and information."


5. (S) Comment: The Burma-Iraq trade reported by other
channels may be an outgrowth of the 2001 agreement and/or
this March 2002 session of the Burma-Iraq Joint Committee.
The agreed minutes of this meeting contain no individual
elements that are particularly worrying in themselves. The
document clearly portrays the relationship between Iraq and
Burma as cordial and cooperative, with a pledge "to further
enhance relations between the two countries in all fields."

Martinez