CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): A/S DESUTTER'S

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 05 THE HAGUE 002956

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STATE FOR AC/CB, NP/CBM, VC/CCB, L/ACV, IO/S
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISP
JOINT STAFF FOR DD PMA-A FOR WTC
COMMERCE FOR BIS (GOLDMAN)
NSC FOR CHUPA
WINPAC FOR LIEPMAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/25/2013
TAGS: PARM PREL CWC
SUBJECT: CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): A/S DESUTTER'S
CONSULTATIONS IN THE HAGUE - CWC AND OTHER ISSUES

Classified By: Ambassador Eric M. Javits, Ambassador to the OPCW. Reas
ons: 1.5 (B, D).

This is CWC-127-03.

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SUMMARY
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1. (U) On November 17-18, Paula A. DeSutter, Assistant
Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance, visited

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The Hague and consulted with officials of the Technical
Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of

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Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and other officials. She sought to
build on relationships with the OPCW and advance verification
and compliance issues related to the Chemical Weapons
Convention (CWC).


2. (U) A/S DeSutter also addressed the Western European and
Other States Regional Group (WEOG) and held bilateral
meetings with representatives of the United Kingdom, Italy,
and The Netherlands. In several of the bilateral meetings,
the current IAEA-Iran situation was raised. End Summary.

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Meeting with Director-General Pfirter
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3. (C) During her meetings with OPCW Director-General (DG)
Rogelio Pfirter, Assistant Secretary for Verification and
Compliance Paula DeSutter provided an overview of the VC
bureau, and raised several issues relating to verification
and compliance with the CWC. She stressed the importance the
U.S. places on Article IX consultations to resolve compliance
concerns. A/S DeSutter re-emphasized the U.S. view that the
Technical Secretariat must achieve and maintain readiness to
conduct a challenge inspection should one be requested. DG
Pfirter fully agreed and explained that the TS has a program
of exercises which it will continue in 2004. The DG
expressed concern that the tenure policy might have an impact
on readiness due to inspector turnover. A/S DeSutter also
expressed her support for U.S. discussions with the TS to
optimize the use of inspection resources to verify
destruction activities at chemical weapons destruction
facilities (CWDFs). She further pointed to progress that has
been made to improve the Verification Implementation Report
(VIR),and the importance of the VIR to States Parties
assessments of compliance.


4. (C) DeSutter reviewed the progress of bilateral compliance
consultations with several countries and sought information
from the DG on the status of accession of Libya to the
Convention. Responding to her question on the status of
Libya's ratification of the CWC, DG Pfirter said the Libyan
UN delegation had approached him recently in New York
informing him that its government had ratified the Convention
and plans to deposit its instrument of accession soon. In
response to DeSutter's support for shifting verification
effort to Other Chemical Production Facilities (OCPFs),DG
Pfirter expressed the opinion that some industrial
inspections should be repeat inspections, perhaps 5-10
percent, so that no facility would be considered exempt
because it had already been inspected. He asked for USG
assistance in addressing OCPF inspections in 2004.


5. (S) During the meeting, DG Pfirter expressed his strong
support for universality of the CWC. The DG stated that Arab
countries also need to take concrete steps to sign the CWC
and show a degree of commitment to the elimination of
chemical weapons (CW). He requested that A/S DeSutter take
back to Washington his request that North Korean accession to
the CWC be included during the current six-party talks. The
DG said that he has made the same request of China, Japan and
South Korea and plans to ask also Russia to lend its support.
DG Pfirter further mentioned that the Panamanians informed
him that they had exhausted the possibilities of dialogue
with the U.S. Pfirter asked for a non-paper from Panama on
the issues but has yet to receive it. He expressed
willingness to mediate the issue, if called upon.
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Meeting with the Verification Division
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6. (U) A/S DeSutter also met with Horst Reeps, head of the
Verification Division and several of his senior staff. In
discussing the TS efforts to optimize the use of inspection
resources to verify destruction activities at CWDFs, DeSutter
advised that any action taken must not decrease the
effectiveness of verification. She emphasized that any
changes should be designed on a case-by-case basis at each
CWDF. Reeps expressed his appreciation of U.S. efforts to
date, and looked forward to the upcoming joint workshop of
experts. Reeps also mentioned that the TS raised this issue
with Russia and stated that it will have to be careful in
addressing optimization at Russian facilities. He further
noted that India is aware of TS efforts to conduct a case
study of U.S. CWDFs.


7. (U) During the meeting, Donald Clagett, head of the
Industry Verification Branch, gave DeSutter an overview of
Article VI inspection activities for the past two years. He
applauded USG efforts to develop a methodology of industry
site selection criteria for DOC/PSF. DeSutter noted that this
methodology had originated in the VC Bureau. Clagett agreed
that not enough OCPFs have been inspected to date and that
the January 2004 industry cluster will readdress this issue.
Clagett mentioned that developing States Parties believed
that they are being unfairly targeted for OCPF inspections,
while other smaller States Parties feel good about
participating in an international multilateral inspection
process.


8. (U) A/S DeSutter expressed support for electronic
submission of industrial declaration and asked Carlos
Trentadue, head of the Declarations Branch, why the TS has
not yet made progress. Trentadue said that he is amendable
to electronic declaration submissions as this will save
resources. He noted that timely submission of declarations as
well as clarification of declarations are important issues
that remain problematic. The TS is working with States
Parties to address these issues. Trentadue informed DeSutter
that the TS would be better able to detect discrepancies in
declarations of transfers of scheduled chemicals if the data
were available electronically. In response to a question,
Reeps stated that Libya so far has not requested TS
assistance in the preparation of its CWC declaration.


9. (U) Several senior staff members expressed their view
that open-source information is valuable in the evaluation of
declarations. However, both Trentadue and Per Runn, head of
the Policy and Review Branch, pointed out that a number of
States Parties have reacted negatively to TS inquiry based on
open-sources. Runn also mentioned that the TS is working on
improving the VIR. DeSutter applauded this and noted that the
U.S. routinely provides substantive comments to the report.

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Meeting with UK Delegation
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10. (S) In her meeting with Ambassador Budd of the United
Kingdom, A/S DeSutter expressed her support for continuing
bilaterally the challenge inspection dialogue that began
earlier this year. Budd noted that the Executive Council
last addressed the issue of challenge inspections almost
three years ago. He asserted that the challenge inspection
mechanism must always be in a state of readiness. DeSutter
informed the Ambassador that both the U.S. and UK are in
agreement on the issues related to the Russian destruction
program and applauded the on-going compliance dialogue
between VC and UK experts.

11. (S) Budd raised UK concerns about the status of Iran's
nuclear program and explained the UK has been working closely
with France and Germany on the draft IAEA Board of Governor's
resolution. He also asked A/S DeSutter's view on the
possible effects of raising internationally mutual concerns
about Iran's CW program. A/S DeSutter informed him that the
U.S. is holding follow-up CW questions to Iran until after
the IAEA meeting this week in Vienna. Budd stated that the
UK dialogue with France and Germany on nuclear issues may at
some point spill over to include CW issues and emphasized the
importance of building broad EU support. Budd also inquired
on the U.S. position on the declaration and destruction of CW
stocks if they are found in Iraq. He asked U.S. views on
whether the OPCW would become involved and stated that Iraqi
accession to the CWC could be a part of a larger strategy of
openness and transparency. A/S DeSutter responded that the
U.S. would carefully consider how to address the Iraqi CW
issues of declaration and destruction of stocks and Budd
noted that the UK will also do the same.

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WEOG Welcomes A/S DeSutter
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12. (U) A/S DeSutter addressed the WEOG noting the
importance of the VIR in addressing verification and the
importance of using Article IX as a tool to resolve
compliance issues. DeSutter also stated the importance of
increasing the number of inspections for OCPFs and urged the
WEOG to address this issue in the upcoming Executive Council
sessions. During the questions and answer session, a number
of States Parties supported A/S DeSutter's views on OCPFs.
Spain took the opportunity to raise the importance of the
challenge inspection tool.

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Meeting with Italian Delegation
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13. (S) Italian Alternate Perm Rep Giancarlo Malpaga
informed A/S DeSutter that Libya did not inform Italy of a
specific date on which Libya would deposit its CWC instrument
of ratification to the UN. Malpaga mentioned that Italy met
with the Libyan delegation on the margins of the 8th
Conference of the States Parties in October. Malpaga said
that Italy has since demarched Libya seeking further
clarification on ratification and is awaiting a response. He
was unable to provide an update on the nature of conversion
activities at Rabta and asserted that he is unaware of any
other States Party that may be providing CWC assistance to
Libya. Malpaga said that Italy has made clear to Libya that
it expects a full declaration in accordance with the CWC.
When asked about recent EU statements on the challenge
inspection mechanisms, Malpaga replied that beyond general
support of the mechanism, the EU was divided on how to use
challenge inspections.

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Meeting at Dutch Foreign Ministry
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14. (U) Mr. Maurits Jochems, Director of the Security Policy
Department of the Netherlands MFA, welcomed DeSutter to
discuss a range of issues relating to the CWC, Iran nuclear
talks, BWC verification, North Korea nuclear talks and the
USG efforts to control, sanction and interdict WMD equipment,
technology and materials. DeSutter explained the functions
of the VC bureau and recounted her discussions with the OPCW.
Marc Vogelaar, Dutch Ambassador to the OPCW, expressed his
support for DG Pfirter and noted Pfirter's businesslike
approach to managing the OPCW. A/S DeSutter also discussed
with Ambassador Arend Meerburg, who oversees the Netherlands
contribution to Russia CW destruction program, her concerns
about Russia's failure to address Condition 1. DeSutter
reaffirmed that Russia has signed two recent Cooperative
Threat Reduction (CTR) amendments to ship nerve agent
reaction mass to Shchuch'ye to complete its nerve agent
destruction at a declared CWDF.


15. (U) The Dutch inquired about the progress of the Iran
nuclear talks in Vienna and the North Korea nuclear talks,
and expressed their support of the ongoing dialogues. The
Dutch also inquired about whether the U.S. would seek to
develop further verification activities under the BWC. A/S
DeSutter expressed her opinion that the BWC is verifiable but
it is difficult to make cases on noncompliance due to the
dual use nature of biological facilities. DeSutter stated
that more work is needed on the enforcement area. Jochems
raised Dutch concerns about reported U.S. efforts to develop
"mini-nukes" and how this might be seen by some countries as
an excuse not to join the NPT or to evade obligations under
that regime. DeSutter rejected these concerns.

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IT Security and other Data Automation Issues at Technical
Secretariat

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16. (U) DeSutter touched on information technology (IT)
issues in her meetings with the DG, the Verification Division
and most especially with Director of Administration Herb
Schulz and Head of the Information Systems Branch, Greg
Linden. She spoke of U.S. interest in making the OPCW TS a
model for IT security standards among international
organizations. She made clear her vision of efforts to
improve transparency in the areas of treaty compliance and
her belief that an efficient and secure data processing
system would significantly improve the ability of the OPCW to
meet its Treaty objectives. The TS was encouraged to fully
embrace the IT security audit process, recognizing that
outside corroboration of a secure automation environment
would go far in encouraging State Parties to adopt an
automated declaration process.
The TS has agreed to a notional baseline audit of the TS'
secure network for early 2004. Schulz and Linden noted that
their system upgrade to Windows 2000 would be completed by
then and a Phase I prototype for the Verification Information
System/Relational Database Management System (VIS/RDBMS)
would be available for demonstration. The U.S. side expressed
continued concern regarding the size and composition of the
audit team -- noting that wider representation would be
preferred for greater acceptance of any report generated
regarding their review.

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Working Lunch with Selected Ambassadors
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17. (U) A/S DeSutter had an opportunity during lunch on
November 17 to meet with Ambassadors of China, India, Japan,
South Korea, Mexico, Russia, and the Czech Republic.
DeSutter explained her role in the USG process and, at the
urging of the U.S. Del, raised U.S. views on increasing
inspection activities at OCPFs. Japanese Ambassador Koike
began a discussion of the challenge inspection mechanism by
inquiring if a request for a CI would be seen as a routine
matter or a significant political event. DeSutter replied
that the first request would be a significant event but that
did not preclude a request. Indian Ambassador Cowsik stated
that a challenge inspection would be a major political event
as it would represent a lack of trust in other States Party's
compliance and was intended for somewhat exceptional
circumstances. In response to a general question about
recent EU emphasis on the challenge inspection mechanism,
Ambassador Onate of Mexico expressed the opinion that the EU
wanted to emphasize it but did not appear to have any plans
to call for one.


18. (C) Comment: A/S DeSutter's visit gave the U.S. an
excellent opportunity to raise to a higher level the
importance of the verification and compliance message to the
TS and States Parties. She also had the opportunity to hear

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a number of differing ideas on a range of issues including
nuclear, nonproliferation and sanctions.


19. (U) A/S DeSutter has cleared this message.


20. (U) Javits sends.
SOBEL