Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03COLOMBO1818
2003-10-20 10:35:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Colombo
Cable title:  

Iraq Donors Conference: GSL will send Paris

Tags:  PREL PGOV EAID CE IZ SP UN 
pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 001818 

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, IO, NEA, INR/NESA
NSC FOR E. MILLARD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10-20-13
TAGS: PREL PGOV EAID CE IZ SP UN
SUBJECT: Iraq Donors Conference: GSL will send Paris
envoy to Madrid and will announce gift of tea

Refs: (A) Colombo 1809; (B) State 294287

(U) Classified by Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead.
Reasons 1.5 (b, d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 001818

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, IO, NEA, INR/NESA
NSC FOR E. MILLARD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10-20-13
TAGS: PREL PGOV EAID CE IZ SP UN
SUBJECT: Iraq Donors Conference: GSL will send Paris
envoy to Madrid and will announce gift of tea

Refs: (A) Colombo 1809; (B) State 294287

(U) Classified by Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead.
Reasons 1.5 (b, d).


1. (SBU) Following up on the Ambassador's October 17
meeting with Foreign Minister Fernando regarding the
upcoming Iraq Donors Conference, polchief spoke with
Sarala Fernando, the MFA's Assistant Secretary for
Multilateral Affairs, on October 20. Fernando said
Ananda Goonesekara, Sri Lanka's Ambassador to France who
is also accredited to Spain, would attend the Madrid
conference. It was also possible that Ambassador Romesh
Jayasinghe, Sri Lanka's Ambassador to Belgium and to the
European Union, would attend. Fernando added that
Goonesekara would announce that Sri Lanka was providing
25 metric tons of tea as assistance to Iraq.


2. (C) Comment: Goonesekara, who before Paris served
in a high-level position at the MFA, is one of Sri
Lanka's most senior diplomats and is well-known to
Mission. He is somewhat prone to NAM-, G-77-type
thinking, but he is friendly enough to the U.S. Sri
Lanka's gift of tea is symbolic of its desire to re-
establish its position as a major exporter of this
commodity to Iraq and is indicative of the GSL's desire
to make a commitment -- even if small -- to Iraqi
reconstruction. End Comment.


3. (U) Minimize considered.

LUNSTEAD