U.S. CT WORK PLAN FOR ASEAN ACCEPTED IN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 001487

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV; S/CT; S; USPACOM FOR J-3; J06

E.O. 12958: NA
TAGS: PTER ASEC PREL OTRA VM ASEAN CTERR
SUBJECT: U.S. CT WORK PLAN FOR ASEAN ACCEPTED IN
PRINCIPLE
-- BY THIRD ANNUAL ASEAN SOMTC



1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The U.S. and ASEAN member states
agreed to accept in principle a U.S.-proposed
counterterrorism Work Plan at the ASEAN-U.S. Senior
Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOMTC). While
final approval of the Work Plan, probably as part of the
formal Summary Record, will take two weeks, ASEAN intends
to point to acceptance of the Work Plan as a major
achievement of the Hanoi SOMTC at the Phnom Penh ASEAN
Post-Ministerial Conference on June 19, 2003. END
SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) State Department Coordinator for
Counterterrorism Cofer Black led a USG delegation
comprised of S/CT officers and representatives from EAP
and USPACOM to Hanoi, Vietnam, for the ASEAN-U.S. portion
of the Third Annual ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on
Transnational Crime. The stated goal of the ASEAN-U.S.
SOMTC was to operationalize the ASEAN-U.S. Joint
Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International
Terrorism signed August 2002 in Brunei.


3. (SBU) In response to potential areas of cooperation
identified in the 2002 ASEAN-U.S. Declaration, the U.S.
circulated a draft work plan in advance of the SOMTC.
The five categories outlined in the U.S. Work Plan are:
Information Sharing; Enhancing Liaison Relationships;
Capacity Building through Training and Education;
Transportation, Border, and Immigration Control; and
Compliance with UN and International Conventions. Full
text of draft Work Plan, with text agreed to in
principle, follows para 6 below.


4. (SBU) In discussing the Work Plan, Indonesia raised
for consideration additional areas in which the U.S.
might provide assistance, including countering chemical
and biological terrorism, providing hardware and software
to combat cyber crime, and delivering technical
assistance to combat narcotics and arms trafficking. The
U.S. delegation concurred on the importance of these
issues, and agreed to the possibility of examining these
issues in future SOMTCs.


5. (SBU) After several sidebar discussions with the
ASEAN Secretariat staff and comment from member states
noted above, both the U.S. and ASEAN member states agreed
to accept in principle the U.S.-proposed Work Plan. The
ASEAN Secretariat must send a draft Summary Record, which
includes the Work Plan, to ASEAN capitals for detailed
review and comment. This process is expected to take
approximately two weeks, and transmittal to the U.S. of
the formal Summary Record will take place one week later,
circa July 4. Formal processes notwithstanding, both
sides are expected to refer to the Work Plan as the way
forward at the Phnom Penh ASEAN Post-Ministerial
Conference on June 19, 2003.


6. (SBU) Note: Brackets below indicate text that is
pending approval before June 18 ARF meeting.

TEXT ENDORSED IN PRINCIPLE
WITH AMENDMENTS AT SOMTC+U.S. CONSULTATIONS
13 June 2003
ASEAN-U.S. Counterterrorism Work Plan
U.S.-ASEAN CT Meeting
Hanoi, June 13, 2003
--Consistent with the "ASEAN-U.S. Joint Declaration for
Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism," signed in
Bandar Seri Bagawan on August 1, 2002, ASEAN and its
member states and the U.S. have enhanced their
cooperation to meet the challenge to peace and security
presented by international terrorism. Together, ASEAN
and its member states and the U.S., have taken steps,
both through multilateral and bilateral channels, to:
- improve intelligence and terrorist finance information
sharing;
- enhance liaison relationships among law enforcement
agencies;
- strengthen "capacity building" in order to respond to
transportation, border and immigration control
challenges; and
- stem the flow of terrorist-related material, money and
people.

Significant progress has also been achieved in legal
matters through the revision of national laws to meet
international standards and as additional states comply
with relevant UN Security Council resolutions. As called
for in UN Security Council Resolution 1373 and the Joint
Declaration, member states have become parties to more of
the twelve international conventions and protocols
relating to terrorism. We welcome these positive steps to
combat the terrorist threat within and across national
boundaries and look forward to additional achievements
both with ASEAN and with its members.

The participants in the Declaration should continue to
strengthen and expand their cooperation to combat
international terrorism in the areas identified in the
ASEAN-U.S. Declaration. Since the signature of the
Declaration, the United States has initiated or planned
programs to address many of the items outlined in the non-
paper on "Potential Areas for Cooperation among ASEAN and
the United States."

In addition to the extensive cooperation currently or
expected to be underway, the United States suggests that the
participants focus on the following new items under the
"Areas of Cooperation" identified in the 2002 ASEAN-U.S.
Declaration.


I. Information Sharing.
In response to the terrorism section of the May 2002
ASEAN Trans-National Crime Work Program and to the
references to "capacity building in national counter-
terrorism operations and systems" and to "disaster
management in the event of terrorist attacks" mentioned
in ""Potential Areas for Cooperation among ASEAN and the
United States," the United States expects to consider
means to facilitate efforts to improve communication
systems among ASEAN member nations and the ASEAN
Secretariat, in order to enhance crisis management

SIPDIS
capabilities.

II. Enhance Liaison Relationships.
To help realize the 2001 ASEAN Joint Action on Terrorism
Declaration's call to strengthen ASEAN's institutional
role in the fight against terrorism and to improve the
transparency of plans and programs of international and
regional organizations designed to combat terrorism, the
United States:
- supports strengthened cooperation between ASEAN and the
United Nations Counterterrorism Committee, the APEC
Counterterrorism Task Force, the G-8 Counterterrorism
Action Group established at the Summit in Evian, France,
the Pacific Islands Forum and other relevant
organizations.
- would be prepared to consider financial assistance for
the ASEAN Secretariat to enhance these types of
relationships.

III. Capacity Building through Training and Education

- The United States would be prepared to consider
further assistance to member countries to develop the
legal, financial regulatory, financial intelligence, law
enforcement, and other capabilities and institutions to
effectively combat terrorist financing.

- In response to the 2002 ASEAN Trans-national Crime Work
Program and in conjunction with facilitating enhanced
communications capabilities as noted in I. Information
Sharing, the United States would be prepared to consider
sharing technology and information for the production of
local, national, and regional consequence management and
disaster preparedness plans.

IV. Transportation, Border, and Immigration Control

The United States shares the concerns of ASEAN states, as
expressed in the 2002 ASEAN Trans-national Crime Work
Program (start bracket) and the Anti-Piracy Statement to
be adopted at the June 18 ASEAN Regional Forum
Ministerial (end bracket,) that sea piracy and other
threats to maritime security are of particular interest
to the region. Accordingly, the U.S. is prepared to
facilitate the efforts of ASEAN or individual members to
enhance maritime security.

In response to references to sea piracy and other
maritime crime in "Potential Areas for Cooperation in
Combating International Terrorism among ASEAN and the
United States," possible assistance to meet this
challenge might include
- a registry of available maritime counter-terrorism
training
- additional training through relevant U.S. government
agencies, particularly to enhance communications
capabilities, and:
- in cooperation with other regional states, advice and
assistance to ASEAN states, as appropriate, to enhance
their capabilities to combat terrorism and piracy at sea.
- The U.S. would consider sharing its experience in
combating maritime narcotics trafficking multilaterally
in other regions.

V. Become party to and comply with UN and International
Conventions

(Start bracket) The ARF Statement on Cooperation Against
Piracy and Other Threats to Maritime Security, which
ASEAN Regional Forum participants are expected to approve
at the upcoming ASEAN Regional Forum Ministerial, calls
for all states to become party to and comply with the
Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against
the Safety of Maritime Navigation 1988 and the Protocol
for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety
of Fixed Platforms on the Continental Shelf, 1988 (SUA
Convention and its Protocol)(end bracket).

The ASEAN Secretariat's information paper on "Potential
Areas for Cooperation in Combating International
Terrorism Among ASEAN and the United States" calls for
the "effective implementation of counter-terrorism
related conventions."

The United States, in cooperation with other regional
states, is prepared to assist parties to the SUA
Convention and its Protocol to implement fully both
instruments as needed, including but not limited to
assistance by providing model legislation and law
enforcement training.


7. (SBU) Ambassador Black, as well as EAP/Percival and
PACOM, have read and cleared this telegram.
BURGHARDT