SPAIN: FOLLOW-UP ON CWC HOST COUNTRY AGREEMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 000635 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/WE AND AC/CB; THE HAGUE FOR CWC DEL E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/16/2015 TAGS: PREL PARM KTIA SU CWC SUBJECT: SPAIN: FOLLOW-UP ON CWC HOST COUNTRY AGREEMENT REF: STATE 26012 Classified By: Ricardo F. Zuniga, Acting Political Counselor. Reasons 1.4 (B) & (D) (C) Just prior to receiving reftel points, poloff met with the Spanish Foreign Ministry's deputy director of international disarmament affairs Marcos Rodriguez February 9 to re-engage the GOS on our efforts to conclude a host country agreement on the Chemical Weapons Convention. Rodriguez said a GOS committee of arms control and defense experts are concluding comments on the most recent version of the CWC MOU, but the MFA could not commit at this time to the U.S. proposal to visit Spain in the March/April 2005 time frame to conclude the agreement. We will deliver reftel points to Rodriguez and urge the GOS to provide its comments as soon as possible. MANZANARES