RUSSIAN DEFMIN IVANOV'S EXTRA DAY IN ANKARA: BLACK

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006967 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/14/2029 TAGS: PREL MASS MARR PINR RS TU IZ SUBJECT: RUSSIAN DEFMIN IVANOV'S EXTRA DAY IN ANKARA: BLACK SEA, IRAQ, CHECHNYA AND SALES REF: A. ANKARA 6887 ¶B. ANKARA 6845 ¶C. ANKARA 6867 Classified By: Political Military Counselor Timothy A. Betts. Reasons 1 .4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Russian Defense Minister Ivanov, accompanied by Russian Navy Chief ADM Kuroyedov, had wide-ranging discussions with Turkish DefMin Gonul December 7, the day after President Putin departed. According to an MND official, Ivanov (unlike Putin--ref a) professed no problem with Turkey's potential EU membership. Ivanov and Gonul agreed to improve cooperation against WMD proliferation and trafficking in the Black Sea and exchanged views on Iraq, with Ivanov suggesting Moscow is willing to sell arms to "a legitimate government of Iraq." The two ministers had a pro forma exchange on Georgia and Chechnya. Ivanov sought greater access for Russian defense industry to the Turkish market; Gonul complained about maintenance problems with Russian helicopters and utility boats already in the Turkish inventory. Three defense agreements were signed: prevention of incidents at sea, protection of proprietary defense industry information, and protection of classified information exchanged pursuant to defense industrial cooperation -- all termed "routine" by our MND briefer. End Summary. -------------- -- Turkey's EU Membership -- No Problem for Russia -------------- -- ¶2. (C) MND Policies and Principles Director RADM Serdar Dulger briefed PolmilCouns December 13 on the December 7 meeting between Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov and Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul. Both Ivanov and Russian Navy Chief Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov accompanied Putin during the President's December 5-6 visit, and both stayed in Ankara an extra day for additional meetings; both attended the meeting with Gonul. According to Dulger, Ivanov told Gonul that Turkey's NATO and possible EU membership "won't bother us at all." Russia is in a position to develop relations with not only Turkey, but NATO, the EU and the US, Ivanov said. (Comment: This is in contrast to what we heard were Putin's admonishments to the Turks he met that Turkey did not need and should not enter the EU--see ref a. End Comment.) -------------- Desire for More Cooperation in the Black Sea -------------- ¶3. (C) Dulger said that the ministers devoted significant time discussing the Black Sea. Ivanov reaffirmed Russia's commitment to participation in BLACKSEAFOR. (Note: BLACKSEAFOR was a Turkish initiate launched in 2001 to build cooperation among Black Sea littoral states' navies. Beginning as annual exercises, BLACKSEAFOR has developed a political dialogue at the vice ministerial level and a rotating command structure. In June 2004, participants agreed to expand the mandate to include naval cooperation to counter terrorism, WMD proliferation and trafficking.) Ivanov called for Turkish-Russian cooperation to make BLACKSEAFOR "more effective and practical" in combating organized crime and proliferation. ¶4. (C) Related to this discussion, Dulger said that Kuroyedov had a separate meeting with Turkish Naval Forces Commander ADM Ornek. Although he did not know what they had discussed in the meeting, Dulger had attended a number of social events hosted by Ornek. At these events, Kuroyedov, who speaks no English, exhibited little knowledge of the Black Sea as most of his experience was in the Far East. Nevertheless, he was supportive of enhanced cooperation among the littoral states, stating "our cooperation on these issues (focusing BLACKSEAFOR on fighting terrorism, WMD proliferation and trafficking) should go beyond written declarations." He also expressed support for Turkey's unilateral BLACKSEAHARMONY operation which is based on NATO's Operation Active Endeavor in the Mediterranean. -------------- Iraq -------------- ¶5. (C) Gonul told Ivanov that in Iraq Turkey wants elections to occur on time everywhere. In the end Ankara wants a stable Iraq; instability in Iraq would be bad for Russia as well as Turkey he said. Gonul listed three factors that were important to prevent turmoil in Iraq: territorial integrity, centralized control over the armed forces, and preserving Iraq's natural resources for use by all Iraqis and not by foreigners. ¶6. (C) For his part, Ivanov said that Russia was not sending military equipment nor personnel to Iraq. However, if asked by a "legitimate Iraqi government," Moscow would consider selling arms to Baghdad. Though Russia has forgiven 80% of its Iraqi debt, Iraq still owed Russia $6-7 billion, so any arms would need to be paid for, he said. -------------- Defense Cooperation -------------- ¶7. (C) Dulger reported that Ivanov promised Gonul that Russian companies would compete to sell Turkey a wide variety of defense equipment, including helicopters. Gonul welcomed the Russians' interest in the Turkish defense market. He then raised some specific maintenance and spare parts issues regarding Russian-origin helicopters currently in service with the Jandarma and specialized utility boats (e.g., tugs, etc.) in the Turkish Naval Force's inventory. The Russians agreed to look into them. ¶8. (C) Three agreements were signed during the visit. Dulger characterized them as "routine and not specific." The most significant was an agreement between the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Turkish General Staff on the prevention of incidents on the high seas. The other two were within the framework of previous agreements. One was on protecting intellectual property rights on information exchanged under the military technical cooperation agreement. The other was to protect classified information exchanged under the defense industry cooperation agreement. -------------- Other Issues: Georgia and Chechnya -------------- ¶9. (C) Other issues touched on in the meeting included: -- Georgia/CFE: Gonul urged Russia to fulfill its Istanbul commitments; Ivanov changed the subject. -- Terrorism: Ivanov noted that Turks were among the foreign fighters found in Chechnya; Dulger said Gonul "noted the Russian complaint" and asked Russia to recognize the PKK/Kongra Gel as a terrorist organization. EDELMAN