PSI: UPDATE ON TURKISH EXERCISE ANATOLIAN DEER

UNCLAS ANKARA 000180 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PARM PREL TU SUBJECT: PSI: UPDATE ON TURKISH EXERCISE ANATOLIAN DEER REF: ANKARA 7156 ¶1. MFA Disarmament and Arms Control First Secretary Serhan Yigit provided us with a list of the 57 countries which were invitd to participate in the May 2006 Turkish-led PS exercise "Anatolian Deer,"annotated with their responses to date. 17 have responded that they will attend the exercise, 3 have responded negatively and the GOT is still awaiting a response from 37 invited countries. Yigit noted that a positive response did not necessarily mean that the country would participate fully, but that it might only send an observer. ¶2. Countries listed as participating in the exercise were: Albania, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Iraq, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Ukraine and the United States. (Note: The United States is listed as responding and participating, although a formal answer to the Turkish invitation is still pending, -- ref a.) France and Portugal are the only countries that have committed to providing assets to participate in the exercise so far. ¶3. Countries listed as not participating in the exercise were Belarus, Hungary, Turkmenistan. Yigit noted that Turkmenistan claimed a lack funding as the reason for not being able to attend; Hungary noted prior commitments that will not allow them to commit to the exercise at this time, but held out the prospect that that might change; Belarus did not provide a reason for their non-participation. ¶4. Comment: We will continue to monitor the development of the Anatolian Deer exercise. GOT officials are doing their best to try to finalize the participation of additional countries in order to allow the exercise developers from the Turkish General Staff sufficient time to construct an exercise that allows full participation from all countries that desire to participate while also testing the overall operation and execution of the Proliferation Security Initiative. WILSON