OSCE/FCS: ITALY WILL NOT BLOCK PROGRESS AHEAD OF

UNCLAS ROME 003797

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT. FOR EUR/RPM

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: BE IT PARM PREL OSCE
SUBJECT: OSCE/FCS: ITALY WILL NOT BLOCK PROGRESS AHEAD OF
MINISTERIAL

REF: STATE 201320


1. (SBU) On November 16 Polmiloff received a response to
Reftel demarche from Brunella Borzi, the MFA's office
director for OSCE affairs. Borzi apologized for the delayed
response saying she has been out of the country and wanted to
first confer with the Italian delegation in Vienna before
reacting. She was unaware that there were lingering
objections to the Italian proposal noted in Reftel. The
bottom line, said Borzi, is that Italy will not be an
impediment to maintaining the current non-proliferation
regimes, and Italy has no intention of modifying the 1994
Governing Principles. Italy will withdraw its proposal if
this facilitates progress ahead of the Ljubljana ministerial.


2. (SBU) According to Borzi, Italy believes evaluating a
potential OSCE role in non-proliferation is a long-term
process that requires consensus and Italy will only reexamine
the issue if it senses the time is right. Italy was simply
acknowledging UNSCR 1540 and took the initiative to examine
ways that the OSCE could play into that resolution. She
noted that there is another proposal gathering momentum
sponsored by Belgium that could be concluded prior to the
ministerial. She acknowledged, when pressed, that she has
only heard about the proposal and could not recall the
specifics.
SPOGLI