TURKEY PREPARING TO HOST SECOND GI MEETING; NEEDS

UNCLAS ANKARA 006673 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR ISN/WMD MEGAN DIETER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER KGIC KNNP PREL TU SUBJECT: TURKEY PREPARING TO HOST SECOND GI MEETING; NEEDS TIME TO REVIEW WORKPLAN REF: STATE 198296 ¶1. (SBU) Together with Russian First Secretary Dmitri Zykov, we delivered reftel agenda and timeline drafts and points to Ahmet Muhtar Gun, Head of Department for the MFA's office of OSCE, Arms Control and Disarmament on December 15. Gun told us preparations were underway for Turkey's hosting the second meeting of Global Initiative partners in Ankara on February 12-13, 2007. He said the likely venue for the meeting will be the Foreign Ministry. He promised to provide logistics details within a week. ¶2. (SBU) Gun welcomed the drafts for the agenda, timeline, and plan of work, and promised comments as soon as possible. He noted that he would not be able to reply by the target date of December 18, explaining that he will need more time to collect feedback from the different GOT agencies and departments involved. Gun recalled the difficulties his office encountered in gathering interagency comments prior to the Rabat meeting, and told us that he believed that the timeline agreed to at Rabat allowed at least two weeks for partner countries to respond. We encouraged Gun to provide us with GOT views as soon as possible. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ WILSON