LETTER ON PSI CORE GROUP DELIVERED TO CANADA

C O N F I D E N T I A L OTTAWA 001975 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/29/2015 TAGS: MNUC PARM PGOV PHSA PREL KNNP CA SUBJECT: LETTER ON PSI CORE GROUP DELIVERED TO CANADA REF: A. (A) LAKER-MCNERNEY TELCON 6/28/05 ¶B. (B)SECSTATE 118539 Classified By: Pol/Mil Officer Patricia Kim-Scott. Reason E.O. 12958, 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Undersecretary Joseph's letter was delivered on June 27 to Assistant Deputy Minister for International Security Jim Wright, with a copy to Rob McDougall, Director of Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament Division (IDA) at Foreign Affairs Canada. In a follow-up conversation on June 29, IDA Deputy Marina Laker informed polmiloff that the GOC was still deliberating its position regarding proposed dissolution of the Core Group; she anticipated that Wright would make a decision later in the day on whether Canada will "maintain silence." (Laker noted irony in the fact that UK technically had "broken silence" with its e-mail endorsement of the U.S. proposal.) ¶2. (C) Alluding to her conversation with T staff regarding the reason for the June 30 deadline (ref A),Laker said she wasn't so sure that dissolving the Core group would "help" in getting others to join PSI. Moreover, she argued, the Core group had done some heavy lifting in its day and there might well be some political issues down the road that would require such a forum. She acknowledged, however, that ad hoc groups could work. ¶3. (C) Laker also disagreed with the view that PSI had matured to a point where the Operational Experts Groups (OEGs) could function without a specific policy umbrella. For one thing, she said, DND (Department of National Defence) officials who represented Canada at the OEGs did not have (and did not want) a mandate to carry out "political discussions". As a regular participant in the OEGs, Laker asserted that she had observed both a noticeable slow-down in activity and a growing undercurrent of political debate at recent meetings. She favored moving to "regional OEGs" as a way to avert "OEG fatigue," thus enabling governments to be more active in those OEG meetings in which they had a direct stake. Laker said she was not sure, however, that dissolution of the Core group would advance the concept of regional OEGs. ¶4. (C) Finally, alluding to USG's public diplomacy effort on the anniversary of the PSI, Laker registered Canadians' surprise" that a dozen successful interdictions had occurred under PSI. It would be helpful to have more information about the interdictions, she said. Though she recognized that the Core group wasn't designed to address information-sharing per se, Laker thought it might be useful in identifying these sorts of "gaps" in the PSI. Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa WILKINS