PSI: THAIS CLOSE, BUT UNLIKELY TO ENDORSE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BANGKOK 001886 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR T, EAP, EAP/BCLTV, AC/ISN, NP/CBM, NP/RA OSD FOR DCOOPER, LSTERN E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2015 TAGS: MNUC PARM PREL KNNP ETTC AS TH PSI SUBJECT: PSI: THAIS CLOSE, BUT UNLIKELY TO ENDORSE STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES BEFORE OMAHA REF: A. STATE 39747 ¶B. CANBERRA 510 ¶C. BANGKOK 1819 ¶D. BANGKOK 1772 Classified By: Political Counselor Robert J. Clarke. Reason 1.4(d) This is an action request. ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The Royal Thai Government (RTG) continues to move towards formal endorsement of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) Statement of Principles (SOP) in the near future. However, it is unlikely that the endorsement will be made before the March 21 OEG meeting in Omaha. Embassy requests the Department to advise whether those Thai officials who did not fully understand our instructed demarche should be told formally not to attend the Omaha meeting. END SUMMARY ¶2. (C) On March 15, poloff discussed progress towards Thai endorsement of the Proliferation Security Initiative Statement of Principles (SOP) with Komgrit Varakamin, Director of the Peace, Security and Disarmament Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Komgrit said that within the Thai government there was widespread acceptance of the PSI principles, noting "it is only a matter of time" before the RTG endorses the SOP. He cautioned, however, that the RTG still has to work out a few legal details of the SOP through the intra-agency process. ¶3. (C) Komgrit said MFA will host a large meeting this week with the relevant Thai agencies to discuss the SOP. He said that a major hindrance at this point on reaching a positive consensus is that the RTG is going through a transitional period with the formation of a new government (reftels C, D). Komgrit noted that the new cabinet had just been sworn in on March 14, but reiterated that a change in leadership does not mean a change of views on PSI, and that the RTG widely looks favorably on adoption of the Statement of Principles. ¶4. (C) COMMENT/ACTION REQUEST: Foreign Minister Surakiart, who last week indicated to the Ambassador that he would personally take charge of the effort to forge a final RTG consensus on PSI, was unexpectedly removed from his position at MFA and "kicked upstairs" to be Deputy Prime Minister in the cabinet reshuffle. Komgrit indicated that Surakiart had followed through on his promise to follow up on PSI within the Ministry. However, Surakiart's departure from MFA, along with the many new faces in other relevant agencies throughout the RTG, suggest that it is unlikely that the Thai will be able to endorse the PSI SOP before March 21. ¶5. (C) Komgrit made it clear that the MFA understood the message delivered through last week's instructed demarche (reftel A, D): that a welcome for Thai participation in the OEG is conditioned on prior RTG endorsement of the SOP. However, MFA did not convey to other Thai agencies that they should not to send representatives to the OEG without endorsement. We understand that both the Thai Navy and the Thai Customs Department have made plans to send one delegate each to Omaha, even though it is unlikely that the Thais will be able to endorse the SOP before the 21st. ¶6. (C) As stated in reftel D, Embassy recommends that we do not/not exclude the Thai from participation in the Omaha OEG. Post requests Department guidance on whether or not we should formally tell the RTG operational elements to drop their plans to attend the Omaha meeting because they have not endorsed the SOP. END COMMENT/ACTION REQUEST BOYCE