In meeting with MFA officials, Mission urges

C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 000025

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, IO; NSC FOR E. MILLARD

USUN NEW YORK FOR POL:ETUNIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/03/13
TAGS: PREL PGOV CE UN
SUBJECT: In meeting with MFA officials, Mission urges
an improvement in Sri Lanka's UN voting record

Refs: (A) 02 USUN New York 3135 (Notal)

- (B) USUN-Colombo class e-mail 12/17/02
- (C) USUN-Colombo class e-mail 11/23/02

(U) Classified by Lewis Amselem, Deputy Chief of
Mission. Reasons 1.5 (b,d).


1. (C) In a January 6 meeting, DCM and Polchief met
with Sri Lankan MFA officials Rodney Perera, Director
(Americas),and W.A.T. Gunatilleke, Acting Director
(Middle East/Africa). DCM noted that we had reviewed
Sri Lanka's voting record at the recent UNGA and were
disappointed that its delegation had not voted with the
U.S. more often. To underscore this point, DCM provided
Perera a copy of Sri Lanka's voting record re First
Committee disarmament issues (see Ref C). The record
indicated that the GSL had voted differently from the
U.S. on 13 of 14 occasions. In addition, we understood
that Sri Lanka had not been particularly helpful on
Israeli practices issues (see Ref B). We were also
disappointed that Sri Lanka's permrep (C. Mahendran) had
been quoted as making remarks harsh in tone toward the
U.S. at times.


2. (C) Perera responded that many of Sri Lanka's votes
were decided by "Non-Aligned Movement" (NAM) countries
meeting as a bloc. DCM said he understood that. The
U.S. had excellent bilateral ties with the GSL, however,
and we wanted to cooperate as productively as possible
in multilateral settings, too. We were willing to work
with the MFA in order to accomplish this.


3. (C) COMMENT: Mission will continue to work with the
GSL on this important matter. Sri Lanka's current
government is basically very pro-U.S. (witness its
signing of an ICC Article 98 bilateral agreement in
November). It is unfortunate that this general
orientation has not affected the GSL's UN voting record
in any substantive way. We think a big part of the
problem is the MFA, which seems -- as it has for
years -- to buy off on NAM, G-77 ways of thinking. In
addition, Permrep Mahendran has not proven as receptive
to U.S. views as we would like. We plan to review this
matter with political-level officials, such as key
ministers Milinda Moragoda and G.L. Peiris, once they
return from the fourth round of talks with the Tamil
Tigers in Thailand. END COMMENT.


4. (U) Minimize considered.

WILLS