GREECE: AGREEMENT ON TRAINING IRAQIS IN BULGARIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 000635 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/SE AND EUR/RPM E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/07/2016 TAGS: MARR PREL GR BU IRAQ SUBJECT: GREECE: AGREEMENT ON TRAINING IRAQIS IN BULGARIA REF: ATHENS 523 Classified By: Political Counselor Karen Decker for Reasons 1.4(b/d) ¶1. (C) The Bulgarian government has agreed to allow the Greek military to train Iraqi security personnel in Bulgaria, Greek MFA NATO Division Director Zographos told PolCouns March 7. Although there were a few remaining details to be worked out -- most notably Bulgarian parliamentary approval of an agreement on the status of the Greek troops that would travel to Bulgaria to conduct the training -- Zographos was confident that 30 members of the Iraqi security forces would be ready to travel by the end of April or early May. He described this as the first tranche in what would be an ongoing Greek contribution to NATO efforts to train the Iraqi military. ¶2. (C) Zographos noted that he had just returned from Budapest, where he met with Hungarian officials responsible for NATO issues. If there were problems with Bulgaria as a training site, he said, these officials were enthusiastic about the idea of (Greek-funded) training for Iraqis in their country. Ries