AUSTRIA WILL SUPPORT SUA AMENDMENTS AT DIPLOMATIC

UNCLAS VIENNA 003062 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR NP/RA, L/LEI, L/NP, EUR/ERA AND EUR/AGS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KNNP MNUC PARM PREL EWWT KTIA PHSA AU EUN SUBJECT: AUSTRIA WILL SUPPORT SUA AMENDMENTS AT DIPLOMATIC CONFERENCE REF: STATE 163045 THIS MESSAGE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. ¶1. (SBU) Acting Econ/Pol Couns delivered reftel points to MFA A/S for Nonproliferation and Arms Control Dorothea Auer on September 7. Auer assured us that Austria supports the goals of the SUA amendments and would weigh in again in favor of them in MFA's internal discussions. ¶2. (SBU) We then carried out the demarche to MFA DAS-equivalent for International Law Michael Postl on September 9. Postl said that Austria considered the April 2005 compromise reached in the SUA Legal Committee reasonable and appropriate. Austria was inclined to follow the lead of the UK EU Presidency in pushing through the compromise language. In any case, he observed that, in the interest of arriving at a resolution, "experience showed it was inadvisable to try to change very much" at this point. ¶3. (SBU) Postl's desk officer Thomas Loidl added that the EU maritime working group COMAR would take up the matter on September 23. Austria would be strongly inclined to follow a consensus that emerges from that meeting. ¶4. (SBU) Tulane University professor Guenther Handl, an Austrian international law expert(and former MFA official), will probably again represent Austria at the October Diplomatic Conference. Brown