THE FRENCH ON AFGHANISTAN: SYNERGY NOT INTEGRATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 000488

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/24/2015
TAGS: PGOV PREL SNAR EAID AF FR NATO
SUBJECT: THE FRENCH ON AFGHANISTAN: SYNERGY NOT INTEGRATION
FOR ISAF/OEF; NO NEW FORCE CONTRIBUTION FOR NOW; IDEAS ON
COUNTERNARCOTICS

REF: SECSTATE 02743

Classified By: political minister counselor Josiah Rosenblatt for reaso
ns 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY. In a series of meetings on January 21 and
22, Coordinator for Afghanistan Ambassador Maureen Quinn and
a State, Department of Defense/OSD and JCS team met with
several representatives from the French MFA, MOD and Elysee
(President's office) to discuss the French outlook and
commitment in Afghanistan. On the whole, officials expressed
optimism in the wake of what they deemed a successful
presidential election. The officials expressed concerns
over ISAF expansion, the proposed ISAF/OEF "merger", and a
narcotics problem that all agreed is Afghanistan's biggest
challenge in the year ahead. The French offered their views
on Phase II commitments (they are looking into what they can
give and will push their European partners to do the same).
Bertrand Besancenot, the MOD Diplomatic Adviser who had just
returned from Russia, suggested allowing the Russians to
engage more in Afghanistan though he recognized that the
coalition must be careful in how and to what extent Russia
should play a role and said Alliot-Marie would soon offer
ideas on counternarcotics (para. 8). End Summary.

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Political Atmosphere: French Positive on Upcoming
Parliamentary Election
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2. (U) French officials were optimistic on Afghanistan's
future, which Camille Grand, Deputy Diplomatic Adviser to the
Minister of Defense, characterized as "a success story" and
Presidency Advisor for Strategic Affairs, Laurent Bili, said
was "a bigger success than France had expected." Anne
Grillo-Nebout, the head of the MFA South Asian Affairs
Department, said that the French were pleased with how
President Karzai established his cabinet, characterizing it
as "well-balanced" and noting that it integrates the
Pashtuns, which, she said, the French believe is integral to
stability. Bertrand Besancenot, Diplomatic Adviser to the
Minister of Defense, said that Karzai seemed much more
confident and comfortable at a recent meeting. The next
political challenge, Grillo-Nebout said, will be setting up
the upcoming parliamentary elections that are tentatively
scheduled for spring. She explained that the French believe
the sooner these elections occur the better as the momentum
of the successful presidential election should give force to
the parliamentary elections which will be more complicated.
Grillo-Nebout predicted that the population would participate
in the elections and that if there were challenges they would
probably occur just after the vote.

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Funding for Parliamentary Elections and Training
Parliamentarians
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3. (C) Grillo-Nebout explained that the French are now in
the process of examining funding issues for Afghanistan's
future Parliament. She said that the French would push the
European Commission to contribute to the parliamentary
elections, just as they pushed them to contribute to the
presidential elections. She and Laurent Bili spoke of plans
for a conference that Grillo-Nebout said France would host in
the second week of March (exact date undetermined) on
assistance to the Parliament. The participants will include
G7 countries, UNAMA, UNDP, and others who hold a stake in
funding development of the Parliament. Participants will
present and discuss building an effective framework to
deliver aid to the new Parliament.

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NATO
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4. (C) Force Generation - Xavier Chatel, the MFA NATO Desk
Officer, said that force generation is the real issue at the
core of expanding the ISAF mandate. Both Camille Grand and
Bertrand Besancenot said that the French Minister of Defense,
Michele Alliot-Marie, consistently asserts that nations must
be realistic about their force generation commitments; the
aim, they said, is to ensure that member countries do not
make promises that they cannot keep. Given that realistic
approach, Grand and Besancenot admitted, it can sometimes
appear that the French are less encouraging than they should
be. Nevertheless, both MOD officials assured that the French
are committed to OEF and ISAF and will continue to be
committed even after EUROCORPS hands over command in February
(Grand pointed out that France will give six fighter planes
and crew to ISAF when their command and control elements
leave the mission).


5. (C) Chatel asked for clarification on the proposed U.S.
transfers of two PRTs (Farah and Herat, reftel). He asked
what a handover to ISAF would entail, how it would be done,
if it would mean a diminished U.S. force presence in these
two posts, and what the U.S. sees as the end-state in western
expansion. Ambassador Quinn, OSD and JSC representatives
underscored that the purpose of a possible integration of
ISAF and OEF was not to diminish the US presence or
commitment in Afghanistan. Laurent Bili said the President's
office is in the process of asking the MOD if they have a
"margin of flexibility" that would allow for more troops to
go to the region. He said that France does not like the idea
of using the NATO Response Force (NRF) to fill the vacuum
left when there are not adequate forces but he noted that the
NRF must be available to NATO. He said that the GOF believes
that it is not a good idea to have too many troops on the
ground in Afghanistan; one of the reasons there has not been
high resistance to NATO's presence, he said, is precisely
because the force numbers are low.


6. (C) NATO: ISAF/OEF Integration - Mostly a German
Concern. Bili said the Presidency's concern over proposed
ISAF/OEF integration centered on the fact that the Germans
are unable to support it. Besancenot echoed this saying that
the Germans have a "constitutional problem" with integration
and that Francez special relationship with Germany demands
French support. Grand said that there is some concern at the
MOD over ISAF/OEF integration in that the MOD believes that
the Afghans, who see ISAF forces as purely humanitarian and
OEF forces as having "more teeth," might adopt a more
negative attitude if the two were to merge. Quinn countered
that the reputation of OEF troops among the Afghans is as
high as that of ISAF troops. Another concern, Grand said,
is that the U.S. would decrease its presence in Afghanistan
with the "merger." While he said he was convinced that the
U.S. has "no secret plan to hand Afghanistan over to the
EU,"issues over "post-fusion" troop strength and command
structure linger. Besancenot said that an ISAF/OEF "merger"
amounts to an extension of the ISAF mandate, and would
necessitate a discussion with the U.S. over what the U.S.
contribution to new ISAF capabilities will be. Grand
suggested that the best way to go about a "merger" would be
to do it incrementally rather than making it a political
event. "But in the back of our minds," he admitted, "We
don't want to lose the Germans on this."


7. (C) NATO: PRTs. On the subject of PRTs Grand explained
that in the beginning the MOD was opposed to them; he said
that the military was reluctant to "act like an NGO" while
NGOs complained that working side by side with the military
undermined and endangered them. However, the French sent
liaison personnel to work at two PRTs and based on their
reports have determined that while PRTs are "vastly
different" from one another, "they do work." Subsequent
discussions with UNAMA concluded that PRTs are effective in
administering humanitarian relief. Both Grand and Besancenot
stated that the MOD is not "theologically opposed" to PRTs,
they are still studying the situation.

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Counter-Narcotics
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8. (C) All parties at the MOD, MFA and Elysee agreed that
the largest challenge facing Afghanistan this year will be
combating the growing drug trade. Bili said that ISAF must
be part of the solution to Afghanistan's narco-traffic
problem, a sentiment echoed at the MFA and MOD. When
Ambassador Quinn suggested to Bili and Besancenot separately
that ISAF could provide intelligence and logistic support to
Afghanistan's counter-narcotics effort, both agreed and added
that special forces could also be used if necessary.
Besancenot said that Alliot-Marie would answer Secretary of
Defense Rumsfeld's letter regarding combatting the drug trade
in Afghanistan in the coming days. He said that she will
propose a planning meeting of the U.S., France, Italy,
Germany and the UK to come up with a counter-narcotics
framework quickly. Besancenot said that this should include
proposed military assistance, World Bank contributions and a
plan to incorporate bordering countries (he noted that the
Russians recently pointed out to him that the Iranians have
made a great effort to combat drug traffic in their country
and that they should be involved in any regional strategy
adopted by the coalition). Grillo-Nebout and Besancenot
noted that while the old warlords were content to fight the
system, new drug barons will try to co-opt the government -
this, they said, is particularly dangerous in light of
upcoming parliamentary elections.

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Russia
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9. (C) Besancenot, who returned from an official visit to
Russia with Alliot-Marie on January 21, said that authorities
in Moscow are "more than a little uncomfortable" with the
situation in Afghanistan. Firstly, he said, the Russians are
concerned that since Dostum was "put aside" he could "play a
nasty role" in the future. Secondly, they said, the
liberation of moderate Taliban elements worries the Russians.
He added that Moscow is concerned with the drug issue. The
Russians' problem, according to Besancenot, stemmed from the
fact that they had offered a contribution to NATO efforts in
the past and Washington "said no." He suggested that the
U.S. think again about trying to involve Russia to some
degree in Afghanistan adding that counter-narcotics may be a
way of re-engaging them. He said that the French are not
naive, that they know "Moscow has their friends" in the
country who they would favor, but that the Russians share a
common interest and should therefore not be shut out.


10. Ambassador Quinn cleared this cable.
Leach