MTCR: AUSTRALIA WILLING TO SPONSOR TWO SMALL GROUP

C O N F I D E N T I A L CANBERRA 000691 SIPDIS STATE FOR NP/CBM, EAP/ANP E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/15/2015 TAGS: PARM PREL MNUC ETTC AS MTCRE SUBJECT: MTCR: AUSTRALIA WILLING TO SPONSOR TWO SMALL GROUP PROPOSALS REF: A. STATE 68722 ¶B. CANBERRA 361 Classified By: POLCOUNS WOO LEE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B AND D). ¶1. (C) We presented ref A points on April 15 to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Counterproliferation Section Director Peter Sawczak and MTCR Action Officer Lucinda Bell, asking whether Australia would be willing to sponsor two of the five Small Group proposals that had emerged from the April 4 Small Group meeting on the margins of the Missile Technology Control Regime's (MTCR) Reinforced Points of Contact (RPOC) meeting in Paris. Sawczak said the GOA would be willing to sponsor Proposals 2 and 5, on scrutinizing license applications to key transshipment points, and on transshipment "best practices." These efforts would harmonize with similar Australian efforts in the Australia Group context, Sawczak noted. He saw South Africa as the most problematic country for Proposal 2, given its unwillingness to "name names" of states of proliferation concern. On Proposal 5, he said DFAT had not yet decided whether to suggest "ways forward" or to provide a draft list of "best practices" on controlling the transit, transshipment and brokering of missile-related items. STANTON