MTCR: AUSTRALIA WILL SPONSOR SMALL GROUP PROPOSAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L CANBERRA 000859

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NP/CBM, EAP/ANP AND NP/RA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/16/2015
TAGS: PARM PREL MNUC ETTC AS MTCRE
SUBJECT: MTCR: AUSTRALIA WILL SPONSOR SMALL GROUP PROPOSAL
ON TRANSSHIPMENT BEST PRACTICES

REF: A. STATE 88696


B. STATE 90000

C. CANBERRA 691

D. STATE 68722

E. CANBERRA 361

Classified By: POLCOUNS WOO LEE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B AND D).


1. (C) We presented ref A points on May 13 to Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Counterproliferation Section
Director Peter Sawczak and MTCR Action Officer Lucinda Bell,
asking for Australia's confirmation that it would sponsor the
fifth Small Group proposal on transshipment best practices
which 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 (refs C
and D). Following up on May 16, Sawczak told us the GOA
would indeed sponsor Proposal Number 5, and would also
consult with London about sponsoring Proposal Number 2 on
scrutinizing exports to North Korea through key transshipment
points. He said DFAT would be pleased to see the UK take on
Proposal Number 2 in order to enable his office to better
focus on transshipment and brokering best practices, which he
again noted would harmonize well with similar Australian
efforts in the Australia Group context. Sawczak said his
intent was to update the non-paper on brokering for the MTCR
Plenary that the GOA had presented at the RPOC meeting.


2. (C) With regard to Proposal Number 3 on industry
outreach, while he was glad to see the EU take on the issue,
Sawczak added that Australia wanted to hold an industry
outreach seminar for the East Asia Pacific region as well,
either in late 2005 or in early 2006. Noting that many ASEAN
countries were competeing with each other to become key
transshipment hubs, he thought the GOA would first approach
Thailand to host it and would use Singapore as a fall-back.
(NOTE: This MTCR/AG industry outreach effort would be in
addition to a similar workshop on maritime legal issues that
AC/AS Peter Shannon had told us about a few weeks earlier,
which was also intended to be held in Bangkok in late 2005 as
a subtle PSI and export control outreach effort. End Note.)


3. (C) We also presented Ref B to Sawczak and Bell on May

16. They were pleased to have the information on private
entities the U.S. had sanctioned for nuclear and
missile-related shipments. Sawczak also mentioned that he
would be traveling to Paris for the Regime Chairs meeting in
early June, then would hold Wassenaar-related meetings in
Vienna, and after that would travel to Kiev for export
control outreach meetings with Foreign Ministry officials,
including VFM Dolhov. Afterwards, he would stop in Budapest
to support Hungary's Australia Group-related export control
conference. In the meantime, Sawczak related, Terry Beven,
the Australian Deputy Chief of Mission in Vienna, would
represent the GOA at an MTCR-related Hague Code of Conduct
(HCOC) meeting in Vienna.

STANTON