SPAIN: RESPONSE ON CIVILIAN COMPONENTS OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 001751

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT PASS TO EUR/WE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/09/2015
TAGS: PREL MARR AF SP NATO
SUBJECT: SPAIN: RESPONSE ON CIVILIAN COMPONENTS OF
AFGHANISTAN PRTS

REF: STATE 82968

Classified By: Political Counselor Kathy Fitzpatrick for reasons 1.4(B)
and (D)

1.(C) On May 9, Poloff delivered reftel points on civilian
components of Provisional Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in
Afghanistan to Carlos Morales Sanchez, Subdirector General
for Continental Asia at the Spanish MFA. Morales said that
the Spanish government is continuing to study various options
in regard to the civilian component of the Spanish PRT.
According to Morales, the Spanish government is leaning
toward implementation of the "German model", wherein the
military and civilian components utilize separate command
structures. Under this model, the civilian component would
be supervised by the Spanish Ambassador in Kabul, would
occupy separate quarters from the military and would receive
tasking from the Spanish version of USAID (Agencia Espanola
de Cooperacion Internacional). Morales said that Spain was
also considering the "British model", wherein the military
and civilian components report to the same commander, but
that he believed Spain would opt for the German model.

2.(C) Morales said that this demarche was the first time that
he had heard of the idea of centralized reporting in regard
to civilian PRT activities and that the GOS would need time
to consider it. He further said that the Spanish government
would "of course" share information collected by its civilian
PRT members with NATO, but that it would probably be done
through Madrid. Finally, Morales said that the Spanish
government would consider the proposal that regular reporting
by civilian PRT members be submitted to NATO's Senior
Civilian Representative.

COMMENT
3.(C) Decisions about the composition and activities of the
civilian component of the Spanish PRT are primarily being
made by Spanish aid agency, Agencia Espanola de Cooperacion
Internacional. Given public skepticism towards Spanish
military deployments in general, Spain wants to ensure that
its mission projects an NGO/humanitarian appearance. As a
result, they appear to be leaning towards almost total
separation of the military and civilian components of the
PRT. Spanish officials may view direct reporting about the
activities of the civilian component to NATO as the first
steps toward direct NATO control over civilians. Several
times during the meeting, Morales said that reporting and
information sharing would be done via Madrid, indirectly
indicating this concern. It is likely that Spain will agree
to regular reporting on civilian PRT activities, but also
likely that reporting will be done via the central government
in Madrid, not directly by the civilian PRT components.
MANZANARES