(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 NNNN