SPAIN: DEMARCHE ON GEORGIA'S BORDER MONITORING

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 000992

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2015
TAGS: PREL ZJ RS GG PBTS EUN OSCE
SUBJECT: SPAIN: DEMARCHE ON GEORGIA'S BORDER MONITORING
ORGANIZATION

REF: STATE 43096

Classified By: Political Officer Ricardo Zuniga for Reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d).


1. (C) Charge raised the issue of a Georgia Border
Monitoring Organization (BMO) in a March 14 discussion with
Rafael Dezcallar, MFA Director General for Foreign Policy,
and Josep Pons, MFA Director General of Foreign Policy for
Europe and North America. Dezcallar professed little
knowledge of the issue and referred Charge to Pons to discuss
details. Pons told Charge that Spain is inclined to support
broader efforts for a Georgia BMO. Pons said that Spain was
currently discussing the issue within the Ministry, but he
assured Charge that Spain "does not want to let Georgia
down." Charge also emphasized the importance of the EU
establishing a small mission in Tblisi. Pons said he was
aware of the proposal and promised to get back to Charge soon
with details on Spain's position.


2. (C) Poloff raised the issue with Enrique Mora Benavente,
Head of EU Policy Planning at the MFA on March 14. Mora
Benavente told Poloff that because Russia had vetoed the OSCE
BMO operation, any international presence on the Georgian
border with Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetiya would have to
be discussed with Russia. He said that the EU is currently
considering three options for a BMO in Georgia, including:
(1) Reinforcing the office of the EU Special Representative
to the South Caucasus Heikki Talvitie; (2) Training Georgian
officials to patrol the border; and (3) Having an EU mission
at the border that would be a European Security and Defense
Policy (ESDP) mission. He said that there was widespread
consensus in the EU for the first two options, but there was
no consensus on the third option. He said that the Baltic
States, Slovakia, and Sweden were all pushing the third
option, but he said the proposal did not have strong support
among other EU members.


3. (C) Mora Benavente said that the EU will try to talk
with the Russians, Georgians, and the USG to help resolve the
current problem. The GOS agrees that it is crucial to
maintain an independent BMO along Georgia's border with
Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetiya. When Poloff suggested
the EU proposal for training would be insufficient, Mora
Benavente conceded that the current EU proposal to provide
4-6 trainers may be too small to address the problem. He
told Poloff that the international community now has a
six-week window to try to resolve the Georgian BMO problem
because poor weather in the mountainous border region will
prevent action during that time.
MANZANARES