FOLLOW-UP ON U.S.-RUSSIA MANPADS COOPERATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 015782 DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR EUR/PRA AND PM/WRA E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/27/2014 TAGS: MARR PARM PREL PTER NATO RS SUBJECT: FOLLOW-UP ON U.S.-RUSSIA MANPADS COOPERATION REF: A. STATE 270530 ¶B. STATE 270302 ¶C. EMAIL: FGONALEZ-JSISKOVIC 12/23/2004 Classified By: A/POL Bruce Donahue. Reasons 1.4 (b/d). ¶1. (C) On December 21 we delivered ref A points and U.S. proposed final text for a U.S.-Russia agreement on MANPADS cooperation to Colonel Oleg Skabara of the MOD International Treaties Directorate and Oleg Burmistrov, Political Military Affairs officer of the MFA North America Department. Skabara pushed back on the bracketed changes suggested by the U.S. On December 23 we met again with Skabara and Burmistrov to continue our discussions on the text changes to the proposed U.S. Russian agreement on MANPADS cooperation. ¶2. (C) At the December 23 meeting, Colonel Skabara, who had participated in the December 9 Vienna talks on MANPADS, insisted on working off the GOR's Russian-language version of the draft agreement, saying it was a direct translation from the English-language version agreed upon in Vienna. Skabara declined to work from the USG's Russian-language draft. The Russian side submitted 21 different text changes for USG review, many of which Skabara described as "stylistic" or required by GOR lawyers. A scanned copy of the GOR's Russian-language draft, with line in/out changes submitted by the Russian side, has been sent via email to Jean Siskovic in EUR/PRA. A separate email detailing the 21 GOR-proposed edits has also been sent to Siskovic. ¶3. (C) Although most of the edits were described as stylistic, post sees three specific edits which could potentially be problematic. -- The Russian side rejected the placement of the term "retransfer" ("re-export" in Russian) preceding the "of proprietary rights" in Section One of the agreement. They instead proposed placing the word "re-export" between the words "grant" and "loan." They argued that "re-export of proprietary rights" sounds odd in Russian. -- In Section Five, the Russian side rejected the first use of the word "illicit" in regard to production of MANPADS, claiming it had too broad a meaning. They instead insisted on using the word "unauthorized," reporting that President Putin had used the word "unauthorized" in reference to this matter. However, they were not opposed to using the word "illicit" with regard to transfers later in the same sentence. -- The Russian side insisted on deleting the last sentence of Section Five, which reads, "The participants intend to work cooperatively to discourage transfers of MANPADS by third countries that the Participants would not themselves authorize in similar circumstances." Skabara said the GOR had not agreed to this sentence during the December 9 talks in Vienna, and that this sentence was not submitted for clearance with the rest of the text through their interagency process. He said that if this sentence is to be considered, it would require further negotiations at a higher level -- presumably between General-Lt. Buzhinskiy, Chief of the MOD's International Treaty Directorate, and A/S Bloomfield. In addition, the entire text with the additional changes would need to be resubmitted for review through the GOR's interagency process, Skabara said. ¶4. (C) At the end of the meeting, Colonel Skabara proposed a follow-up meeting once the U.S. side has reviewed the proposed GOR edits. VERSHBOW