ROMANIA RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT CFE TREATY ISSUES

UNCLAS BUCHAREST 001427

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR EUR/NCE - WILLIAM SILKWORTH

E.O. 12958, AS AMENDED: N/A
TAGS: PARM MARR MOPS PGOV PREL MD GG RO NATO CFE
SUBJECT: ROMANIA RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT CFE TREATY ISSUES

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY


1. (SBU) MFA Strategic Policy Director General Cristian
Istrate and NATO Division Director Mirela Maghiar discussed
with PolChief and PolOff June 9 Romanian concerns regarding
the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty.
Subsequent to the June 9 meeting, Maghiar provided a
nonpaper (set forth in full below) that outlines the GOR
position and states, in part, that the GOR would "highly
appreciate more in-depth US-Romania consultations on the CFE
issues, with particular focus on: the implications of the
Russian-Georgian declaration of 30 May 2005 for the NATO
policy on CFE issues; the US approach on the CFE Adapted
Treaty in the perspective of the 2006 CFE Review
Conference."

2. (SBU) The text of the GOR nonpaper follows:

ROMANIA'S COMMENTS ON THE RECENT DISCUSSION IN NATO/NRC ON
THE CFE ADAPTED TREATY

--The recent negotiations on the Statement of the NRC
meeting of Defence Ministers triggered a very controversial
debate among the NATO allies on the CFE issues and on how to
reflect, in an NRC ministerial statement, the significance
of the Russian - Georgian political declaration on the
Russian military basis in Georgia.
--From the beginning, Romania stated its preference that a
CFE-related paragraph not be included in the above-mentioned
statement, in the absence of an in-depth analysis in NATO of
the implications of the Russian-Georgia political agreement
over the CFE Adapted Treaty and the agreed NATO language on
CFE issues.
--Moreover, up to now, the CFE topic has never been
addressed in the NRC meetings of Defence Ministers and the
topic was not even included on the agenda of the 9th of June
defence ministerial meeting of the NATO-Russia Council.
--However, Romania understood the interest of some allies to
highlight the relevance of the Russian - Georgian
declaration and accepted, therefore, the negotiations in
HLTF over a pre-coordinated allied language. The text
proposed by the United States was widely accepted and
ensured reference both to general NATO language on the CFE
Adapted Treaty and explicit mentioning of the remaining
Istanbul commitment on R. Moldova.
--For Romania, this explicit mentioning of the Russian CFE
commitments regarding R. Moldova in the context of a
positive message of NATO on the Russian-Georgian declaration
was extremely important, in order to highlight that the
Russian CFE commitments are not yet entirely fulfilled.
--In our view, the absence or indirect reference to the
remaining CFE commitments, in an official high-level NATO
statement, could have led to the interpretation that the
withdrawal of the Russian military and ammunition from
Transnistria is no longer linked with the fulfillment of the
Russian Istanbul commitments. This would favour the Russian
position that its CFE-commitments are already achieved.
--The divergent views among Allies on these aspects and the
tendency of most Allies to divert from the agreed HLTF
language and to nuance Allied position on such a sensitive
issue without prior debate in NATO is of concern for
Romania.
--In our evaluation, the position of some Allied States on
CFE issues clearly signals the tendency to promote a more
flexible approach regarding NATO's policy of conditionality
between the ratification of CFE Adapted Treaty and the
complete fulfillment of the Russian Istanbul commitments.
--We believe that no explicit or implicit altering of the
NATO common policy on the CFE Adapted Treaty should be made
through negotiations over statements, without serious
analysis and debate in NATO.
--In this context, we would highly appreciate more in-depth
US-Romania consultations on the CFE issues, with particular
focus on:
- the implications of the Russian-Georgian declaration of 30
May 2005 for the NATO policy on CFE issues;
- the US approach on the CFE Adapted Treaty in the
perspective of the 2006 CFE Review Conference.

End Text of GOR Nonpaper


3. (U) Amembassy Bucharest's reporting telegrams are
available on the Bucharest SIPRNET Website:
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/bucharest.

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