Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05PARIS5490
2005-08-12 16:52:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Paris
Cable title:  

FRENCH: COESPU SUPPORT WILL TAKE TIME

Tags:  KPKO MARR MASS FR 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS PARIS 005490 

SIPDIS

PLEASE PASS TO RACHEL FEATHERSTONE, PM/PPA.

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPKO MARR MASS FR
SUBJECT: FRENCH: COESPU SUPPORT WILL TAKE TIME

REF: SECSTATE 139663

UNCLAS PARIS 005490

SIPDIS

PLEASE PASS TO RACHEL FEATHERSTONE, PM/PPA.

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPKO MARR MASS FR
SUBJECT: FRENCH: COESPU SUPPORT WILL TAKE TIME

REF: SECSTATE 139663


1. SUMMARY. MFA contacts stress that the GoF needs time to
consider the U.S.-Italian request for support to the Center
of Excellence for Stability Police Units (COESPU). Local
Italian embassy contacts do not expect a French contribution,
but were encouraged that the GoF did not reject their request
outright. END SUMMARY.


2. On August 1 poloff spoke with Italian Charge d'Affairs,
Piergiorgio Cherubini, in an effort to coordinate reftel
demarche with the Italian Embassy in Paris. Cherubini
explained that his embassy had delivered a demarche to the
MFA Office of Strategic Affairs DAS equivalent Xavier
Carrel-Billiard on July 22. Cherubini said that Italian
expectations were low that the French would act on their
request to help with the COESPU in Vicenza, Italy; however,
he said he was encouraged to learn that the French were not
opposed outright to cooperating. According to Cherubini,
Carrel-Billiard said he would pass the matter on to those
responsible for the gendarmerie for their consideration.


3. On August 9 and 12 poloff spoke with Elisabeth Claverie
de Saint-Martin, who works under Carrel-Billiard and is
responsible for matters concerning the gendarmerie, in the
MFA's office of Strategic Affairs. Saint-Martin said that
the GoF was considering the U.S.-Italian request, but that
the French needed time to work on the issue. She said that
involving the gendarmerie required coordination across a
spectrum of intergovernmental agencies and offices.
Furthermore, she added, French participation would involve
doctrinal changes to the gendarmerie. Similar changes, she
noted, would need to be examined in light of establishing a
common European gendarmerie (also to be headquartered in
Italy). Therefore, she explained, to make a hasty change in
response to an immediate need could be counter-productive to
their longer-term goals. She assured poloff that the French
understood what the U.S. and Italy would like from France as
regards the COESPU, and that the GoF was busy examining what
changes were necessary in order to accommodate these needs- a
time-consuming process.


4. Poloff gave Saint-Martin a copy of instructions for
accessing the France Country web page of the G-8 Africa Peace
Support Operations (PSO) Website which she said she would
forward to the appropriate GoF personnel.
Hofmann