In meeting with Ambassador, Colombo Plan SG

C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 000940

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, IO, IO/T, INL/C/CJ(BROWNE)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06-08-14
TAGS: SNAR AORC PREL CE
SUBJECT: In meeting with Ambassador, Colombo Plan SG
requests update on USG position on proposed amendment

Refs: (A) Colombo 668, and previous

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


1. (C) On June 8, Kittipan Kanjanapipatkul, Colombo
Plan Secretary General, briefed the Ambassador on the
agenda of the upcoming June 14-16 39th Consultative
Committee Meeting (CCM) to be held in Tehran, Iran.
(There will not be any USG attendance at the meeting in
Tehran.) Specifically, the Secretary General
anticipated that member countries would raise the issue
of the proposed amendment to the Colombo Plan and asked
the Ambassador if there was any update on the USG
position regarding the proposed amendment. (The
proposed amendment aims to restrict access to Colombo
Plan training opportunities for countries more than four
years in arrears, until a partial payment of back dues
is paid.) In reply, the Ambassador said that the U.S.
continued to work on the issue, but that we had no
further formal response at present. In addition, the
Ambassador felt that it would not be acceptable to the
U.S. for the USG position to be merely noted during the
CCM, with the organization adopting the amendment on the
strength of the approval by the remaining 25 countries.
The issue would not have consensus, the Ambassador said.


2. (C) Providing additional background, the Secretary
General said that during the 38th CCM in July 2001, the
entire organization, including the U.S., agreed to the
proposed amendment but felt that the manner of sanction
was too harsh. The July 2001 version of the proposed
amendment required full payment of arrears and the CCM
requested the Council to develop a more lenient option.
The result was the current version of the proposed
amendment which requires only partial payment of
arrears. The Secretary General confirmed that there had
been U.S. representation at the July 2001 meeting in
which the proposed amendment was initially approved.


3. (C) In a related development, the Secretary General
also noted that Bangladesh had informed the Colombo Plan
Secretariat that in the absence of a regulation

SIPDIS
requiring payment of dues, the government would no
longer pay the annual dues of 14,500 USD. Bangladesh
plans, however, to continue to avail itself of training
opportunities and partake in Colombo Plan programs.


4. (C) COMMENT: The Secretary General's comments serve to
illustrate the demonstrated need the Colombo Plan has to
require member countries to pay dues. Further, it
highlights the limited effect that restrictions on
voting rights will have: given the consensus required
for voting in the Council, denial of such rights will
not compel the government of Bangladesh to pay it dues.
The Colombo Plan is widely recognized for its effective
efforts in narcotics demand reduction in Asia and the
Pacific and the U.S. is keen for the organization to
continue this work (for example, funded by INL, the
Colombo Plan is organizing a regional anti-narcotics
officer training in MALDIVES later this month). As the
annual dues go solely to support the Secretariat in its
administration of the entire organization, it is
imperative that the Colombo Plan has an effective,
enforceable method of collecting these dues. The many
years of work on this proposed amendment show the
organization's commitment to being even-handed in its
approach. Mission strongly believes the U.S. should
support the organization in this endeavor. END COMMENT.


5. (U) Minimize considered.

LUNSTEAD