CANADA COMMITTED TO MOVING FORWARD ON KABUL AGENDA

UNCLAS OTTAWA 003347 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KDEM PREL EAID CA AF SUBJECT: CANADA COMMITTED TO MOVING FORWARD ON KABUL AGENDA REF: SECSTATE 203820 ¶1. (U) Polmiloff delivered reftel points on November 8 to Foreign Affairs Canada desk officers Pamela Isfeld in the Peacekeeping and Peace Operations group (IRP) and Richard Arbeiter, senior policy advisor in the South Asia division. Both welcomed USG views on the Kabul Agenda and re-affirmed Canada's commitment to moving the Agenda forward. They appreciated our recognition of the Canadian paper and said that the Afghan government had been very responsive to the Canadian proposal. ¶2. (SBU) Arbeiter, a principal drafter of the non-paper, elaborated some of the key motivations behind Canada's own desire for a monitoring mechanism to oversee the reconstruction process, including: -- the need for greater accountability, not just on the Afghan side of the equation, but with regard to donor pledges and commitments (i..e. donor follow-through) and to maintain integrity in "how" donor support is implemented; -- the need for coherence among the "many moving parts" on the ground in Afghanistan; -- the need to record progress (or lack thereof) and report to the Afghan people on where matters stand. ¶3. (SBU) Arbeiter welcomed the proposal for a senior UN official to co-chair a donors' Steering Group. At the same time he cautioned that it was important not to get "too far ahead" of the process on the ground in crafting the mechanism for oversight of the reconstruction process. Canada had heard, for example, that some Afghanis had complained about something as basic as nomenclature, preferring the name "Afghanistan Agenda" to the more capital-centric "Kabul Agenda." The Afghan leadership component was essential, he said. The relationship between the Steering Group and its Afghan partners would be an important consideration as well. Similarly, Arbeiter continued, some thought should be given to regional actors (groups and/or countries) that would have a stake in policies initiated by the Group. For example, Central Asian countries like Pakistan would be affected by counter-narcotics policy in Afghanistan; other countries in the neighborhood should be consulted, if not involved, in the evolution of "trade arrangements" and infrastructure-related initiatives, such as power grids. ¶4. (SBU) On the need for stronger financial commitments, Arbeiter said that a number of key donors did not want the January 30-31 London conference to be headlined as a "pledging conference." For one thing, there was concern that some countries might feel pressured to make pledges that wouldn't be followed-through. He and Isfeld said this was partly due to the different fiscal cycles of major donors. Canada, for example, would be in the latter stages of its fiscal year (April 1 to March 31) as well as facing the possibility of elections being called for January, which would tend to "politicize everything." Another concern, Arbeiter continued, was that the prior commitments of some donors still had not been fully realized. The practice of "multi-year commitments," which varied from country to country, posed a bit of a challenge, he said. Afghans desired a clear commitment to the "Afghanistan Agenda." Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa WILKINS