Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04DUBLIN883
2004-06-09 14:03:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Dublin
Cable title:  

BURMA PRESENTS UNITY CHALLENGE TO EU 25

Tags:  PREL PGOV BM ASEAN 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DUBLIN 000883 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/09/2014
TAGS: PREL PGOV BM ASEAN
SUBJECT: BURMA PRESENTS UNITY CHALLENGE TO EU 25

REF: A. STATE 120720


B. DUBLIN 641

Classified By: DCM Jane B. Fort for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

SUMMARY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DUBLIN 000883

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/09/2014
TAGS: PREL PGOV BM ASEAN
SUBJECT: BURMA PRESENTS UNITY CHALLENGE TO EU 25

REF: A. STATE 120720


B. DUBLIN 641

Classified By: DCM Jane B. Fort for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

SUMMARY


1. (C) Irish government concerns about the continuing
detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and the lack of participation
by pro-democracy groups at the constitutional convention will
not result in public statements soon. Ireland continues to
work indirectly through its Asian partners. Upcoming Asia-EU
meetings (ASEM) present difficult options for the EU 25 on
whether, and how, to attend meetings where the ASEAN side
expects to seat Burma as a quid pro quo for meeting the
formally enlarged EU. End Summary.


2. (U) Poloff delivered demarche based on Reftel A to
Caitriona Ingoldsby of the Asia and Oceana Section of the DFA
on June 8. DFA principals who cover Burma have been
traveling. Ingoldsby promised to share points with Cliona
Manahan-Leslie, Director of the office, and Niall Brady,
member of her staff, who are now in Brussels for an EU Asia
directors meeting July 9 in the run up to the General Affairs
and External Relations Council (GAERC) meeting next week.


3. (C) Cautious Ireland, equally concerned by the detention
of Aung San Suu Kyi and the exclusion of pro-democracy groups
from the convention, has no plans to comment publicly on
Burma yet. Irish influence and access to the Burmese
government is limited and Ireland's experience is that
"shouting loudly by the EU drives Burma into its shell,"
Ingoldsby said, so Ireland has worked indirectly through
Asian partners. Demarches and parallel efforts by Irish
special envoy Ambassador Robert Campbell in capitals have
borne no fruit and the lack of progress from Rangoon has
"surprised everybody" and "made constructive engagement
difficult," Ingoldsby complained.


4. (C) The calendar will force more overt EU action. The
crux of the issue is the bloc admission of the ten new EU
states to ASEM (Asia Europe Meeting),which the EU expects,
versus the bloc admission of the three new ASEAN states,
Laos, Cambodia and Burma, which ASEAN demands as a quid pro
quo. The last ASEM meeting of Foreign Ministers in Dublin in
April (reftel B) adjourned hopeful that anticipated progress
on Burma would ease the expansion issue. Now disappointed,
the EU, formally 25 States since May 1, feels it faces its
first test of unity, Ingoldsby revealed.


5. (C) Ingoldsby said that GAERC will ponder Burma and the
ASEM dilemma it presents. The EU needs a common position on
group participation before ASEM ministerials in July and
September in the Netherlands and the next ASEM Summit October
8-9 in Hanoi; several options seem to be on the table:

a) The EU refuses to meet with ASEM if Burma is
included. Ingoldsby said the EU would work hard to avoid
this outcome so as to maintain the larger good of the ASEM
meetings.

b) The EU goes to the ASEM meeting as 15, thereby
forcing ASEAN to exclude Burma and the other two. Ingoldsby
refused to be drawn on EU discussions of this difficult
option, saying it was "up to partners." She noted that the
simmering discussions of a "two tier Europe" would make this
option most difficult for the new EU 10 to accept as "an
awful precedent so early on."

c) The EU goes to the ASEM meeting as the troika, with
ASEAN sending some form of parallel representation.
Ingoldsby agreed that this option might formally preserve the
ASEM format while keeping the Burma issue on the table.

d) The EU goes as 25, ASEAN comes with Burma, and the
issue is mooted.

COMMENT


6. (C) ASEAN ministers are reportedly as surprised and
disappointed by current events in Burma as the Irish, who
clearly feel stymied. Irish quiet diplomacy, dependent on
time, is bumping up against constraints imposed by formal
ASEM meeting calendars. Excluding the newly-admitted EU 10
from ASEM meetings, to make a point on Burma, seems unlikely
to gain consensus among the EU 25. So it remains a question
of whether the EU sees its broader relationships with Asia
bound up in ASEM or whether the ASEM vehicle will be
sacrificed to make a point on Burma.
KENNY