(S) INFORMING COALITION PARTNERS: SLOVAKIA

S E C R E T BRATISLAVA 001005

SIPDIS


"NOTE BY CIB: PROCESS "AS IS" PER EAO MEREDITH LANE".

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/22/2030
TAGS: PGOV MARR MASS PREL IZ LO
SUBJECT: (S) INFORMING COALITION PARTNERS: SLOVAKIA
RECEIVES MESSAGE, NOT LIKELY TO CHANGE ITS DEPLOYMENT

REF: STATE 229319 (NOTAL)

Classified By: CDA, a.i., Lawrence R. Silverman for Reasons 1.4 (B) and
(D).


1. (S) CDA and Poloff delivered reftel points at 16h30
local time December 22 to Ambassador Milan Tancar, Secretary
General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and advisors from
the Iraq and security assistance departments. Tancar
expressed appreciation for the advance notice, reiterated
that Slovakia would stay the course in Iraq, and emphasized
Slovakia's continued commitment to training the Iraqi
military, through the NATO training mission and other means
(e.g., the recently completed training of Iraqi military
policemen in Slovakia). Defense Attache also briefed State
Secretary of Defense (Deputy Minister) Martin Fedor, who told

SIPDIS
us that the announcement was "not unexpected" and that he,
too, appreciated the advance notice. Both men promised to
disseminate the information to the appropriate GOS officials
and to respect the sensitive nature of the message.


2. (S) COMMENT: We do not forsee Slovakia, which has
approximately 100 troops in Iraq performing engineering and
demining operations, changing the size of its Iraq deployment
in the near future, but Fedor did tell us that the GOS troops
may make some changes to better reflect the "new" training
and capacity building mandate. END COMMENT.
SILVERMAN


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