AMBASSADOR TAHIR-KHELI'S MEETINGS WITH GERMAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L BERLIN 000700

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DEPARTMENT FOR SECRETARY RICE AND UNDER SECRETARY FOR
POLITICAL AFFAIRS R. NICHOLAS BURNS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/09/2016
TAGS: PREL KUNR UN GM
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR TAHIR-KHELI'S MEETINGS WITH GERMAN
OFFICIALS


Classified By: Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D
).


1. (C) (Summary) Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli visited
Berlin and discussed UN reform with National Security Advisor
Christoph Heusgen, Ministry of Foreign Affairs State
Secretary Georg Boomgaarden, Director General for UN Affairs

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Hans-Joachim Daerr and other Ministry officials on March 6
and 7. She also met with members of the Parliamentary
subcommittee on UN Affairs, held a press roundtable with
members of the German press and spoke with opinion leaders in
a number of outreach events. German interlocutors noted that
they were dissatisfied with the draft proposal for a new
Human Rights Council put forward by General Assembly
President Eliasson, but said they reluctantly supported an EU
consensus that it is the best that can be achieved now. They
also raised the issue of UNSC expansion, and noted that,
while expansion is not a top German priority, it is an issue
of interest to Chancellor Merkel. They strongly supported UN
management reform initiatives, but cautioned that eliminating
mandates would be very difficult. They said the Peace
Building Commission is particularly important to the Germans,
and Germany would like to be present "as permanently as
possible" on this commission.


2. (C) Ambassador Tahir Kheli emphasized that it is
important to get a significant improvement in the quality of
the UN's Human Rights organ now that so much effort has gone
into reforming it. She said it would be better to address
the issue of Security Council expansion later this year after
other UN reforms had been dealt with. She stressed that the
U.S. does believe Security Council reform is important, but
there are still many conflicting proposals for expansion and
no signs yet that any can obtain broad support. Regarding
management reform, she stressed that the U.S. focus is not
simply on eliminating mandates to save money, but on using
resources more efficiently and redirecting the UN budget to
higher priority tasks. (End Summary)

NSA Heusgen
--------------


3. (C) National Security Advisor Heusgen expressed interest
in how the debate on the Human Rights Council could move
forward. He agreed that the proposal of General Assembly
President Eliasson for a new council had been watered down
and had a number of weak points. He said trying to improve
it was reasonable, but asked what should be done if efforts
to improve the draft failed. Heusgen said Germany and the EU
had concluded that the advantages of the current draft
outweighed its disadvantages.


4. (C) Ambassador Tahir-Kheli stressed that the U.S. has
been strongly engaged over the past eighteen months on UN
reform issues and has consistently highlighted U.S.
priorities. Regarding the Human Rights Council, the U.S.
made clear from the beginning that improving the quality of
membership is critical. The U.S did not ask for line by line
negotiations at the last minute, she said, but is simply
standing by the principle that objective requirements for
membership, such as the support of two thirds of the General
Assembly and absence of human rights-related sanctions, are
necessary. She stressed that the EU and the U.S. should work
together closely on this issue. She said some interlocutors
had told her that some African countries were prepared to
support the two thirds requirement for membership but backed
away after getting a signal from the EU that the majority
requirement was acceptable.


5. (C) She noted that UN management reform efforts are
already underway and that a list of mandates for review might
be available at the end of the month. She stressed that the
U.S. focus is not simply on eliminating mandates to save
money, but on using resources more efficiently and
redirecting the UN budget to higher priority tasks.
Chancellery Global Affairs Director Nikel, who sat in on the
meeting, agreed that trying to eliminate mandates would be
very important, but he stressed that the debate would become
politicized.


6. (C) Nikel also raised the issue of UNSC expansion, and
asked whether the U.S. had a position on the recent Japanese
expansion proposal. Ambassador Tahir-Kheli said that,
although the U.S. supports a permanent seat for Japan, it has
not taken a position on the new Japanese proposal. She noted
that there are still many conflicting proposals for expansion

and no signs yet that any can obtain broad support. Nikel
said that, although UNSC expansion is not the top UN reform
priority of the Germans, Chancellor Merkel does show interest
in the topic. Nikel added that Merkel was involved in the
decision to reintroduce the G-4 proposal this year.


7. (C) Nikel also asked Ambassador Tahir-Kheli for her views
on the election of a new Secretary General. She said the U.S
is looking for a strong manager and is not tied to supporting
a candidate from any particular region.


8. (C) National Security Advisor Heusgen noted as an aside
that the current German government wants the EU to take more
common positions in the UN to support the long term objective
of strengthening the EU. In fact, Heusgen said he would like
this to be one of the goals for Germany's EU presidency next
year.

General Director Daerr
--------------


9. (C) The meeting with General Director Daerr of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs focused largely on management
reform. He said the Germans had selected Karl-Theodor
Paschke to be a Special Ambassador for UN Management Reform.
According to Daerr, Paschke's long experience working on
management issues in the UN would make him an excellent
counterpart for U.S. and Japanese advisors working in similar
functions. Daerr added that Foreign Minister Steinmeier is
very familiar with UN reform issues because of his previous
job in the Chancellery.


10. (C) Daerr said the new Ethics Office and Auditing Board
have strong support in the General Assembly. The mandate
reviews would encounter more difficulties because G-77
countries would resist eliminating many of the mandates.
Mandate reviews, he said, will have to be done in phases and
it may take a long time to get tangible results. Daerr said
he recognizes the U.S. government is under congressional
pressure to get quick results on UN reform. He said this
pressure is useful up to a point, but at some point this time
pressure might stir resentment in some UN members. Daerr
said Western countries should stress that when the UN saves
money by eliminating a mandate the money will be reinvested
in a higher priority UN program.


11. (C) Ambassador Tahir-Kheli agreed that this would be a
good approach. She said that in her consultations with other
countries she had noted a widespread and deep desire for
management reform and improved efficiency at the UN. Many
interlocutors agreed with her that it did not make sense, for
example, for an organization as large as the UN Department
for Peace Keeping Operations, with a budget of more than 4
billion dollars, to have no outside oversight. She said that
the Secretary General had begun making some management
changes in January. She noted that reform is likely to lead
to fewer jobs in New York and more jobs in the field, often
in countries where living conditions are difficult. It will
also require giving more administrative power to the
Secretary General. Consequently, reform will require a

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change in the political culture at the UN.

Peace Building Commission
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12. (C) Daerr said the Peace Building Commission is
particularly important to the Germans, in part because of the
big investments they have made in Afghanistan. He said
Germany would like to be present "as permanently as possible"
on this commission. Consequently, during times when they are
not represented as one of the leading financial contributors
they would like U.S. support in being elected through one of
the other nominating mechanisms (such as being voted onto the
commission by the General Assembly). Daerr said some key
players should remain on the Peace Building Commission more
or less permanently, since expertise is critical. He argued
that the principle of rotation would be destructive for this
commission.


13. (C) Daerr said tha once the Peace Building Commission
is up and runing it should focus quickly on its initial
tasks He cautioned that the problems in the Congo or Sdan
might be too large for the commission to tak on, and
suggested that Haiti, Burundi or Liberi might be better as
first tasks.

Security Council Expansion
--------------


14. (C) Daerr said that the Germans reintroduced the G-4
proposal for Security Council expansion this year because
they believe it is the best proposal that has a reasonable
chance of getting broad support in the General Assembly. He
said the Germans will be interested in U.S. views on Japan's
recent proposal for Security Council expansion which calls
for 21 members. Daerr said the Japanese shaped their
proposal to meet what they thought might be Washington's
requirements on such issues as maximum expansion of the
Council. According to Daerr, the Japanese told him they do
not expect the U.S. to support this proposal, but they hope
it will at least not encounter active resistance from
Washington.


15. (C) Daerr argued that the Japanese proposal would get
little support in the General Assembly. He said the proposal
would have the best chance if it did not specify which of the
six new seats it calls for is permanent and which is
non-permanent. However, he said that if new permanent
members are selected by secret ballot under such a proposal
the Japanese would be unlikely to get enough support to
qualify.


16. (C) Daerr said he does not think that any expansion to
less than 24 members could obtain broad support in the
General Assembly. The G-4, he said, raised the number to 25
in response to High Level Panel recommendations which were
generous to Africa. The G-4 proposal offers Africa two
permanent seats and 4 non-permanent seats. Consequently, the
Germans have been surprised and frustrated with the African
Union's unwillingness to support the G-4 proposal. African
obstructionism plus the opposition of the U.S. and China were
the chief reasons it was not accepted, Daerr claimed. He
added that the Germans remain open to other proposals.


17. (C) Ambassador Tahir-Kheli said it would be best to deal
with other UN reforms first and then address the question of
Security Council expansion later this year, perhaps in July.
She said the U.S. government decision on this issue would be
made at the highest levels of the government. She stressed
that the U.S. does believe that Security Council reform is
important, and that the U.S. definitely is not in the camp of
China, which opposes all Security Council expansion.

Human Rights Council
--------------


18. (C) At lunch, where Daerr was joined by the Office
Director for UN Human Rights Affairs Peter Rothen, the
conversation focused on the UN Human Rights Council. Daerr
said the Germans' initial approach had been to improve the
existing Human Rights Commission, but they decided to support
SYG Annan when he called for an entirely new Human Rights
Council. Daerr said he is worried that the new Council will
be no better than the old Commission. In some points, such
as in not restricting the Council to a ten week session, the
draft proposal presented by General Assembly President
Eliasson clearly is an improvement over the old Commission,
Daerr said. But the Germans were not satisfied with the
draft overall. In the end, however, they decided to join the
EU consensus that it is the best that can be achieved now.


19. (C) Ambassador Tahir Kheli emphasized that it is
important to get a significant improvement in the quality of
the UN's human rights organ now that so much trouble and
effort has gone into reforming it. She said the U.S. has
consistently stressed since 2004 that membership
qualifications for the Council are critical. The U.S. has
supported a requirement that prospective members obtain the
support of two thirds of the General Assembly and that
objective grounds for disqualification, such as being under
sanction for human rights abuses, be in place. These have
been long-standing positions that have been clearly
communicated to many interlocutors, she said, and they remain
the only sticking points for the United States now. The
U.S., she emphasized, is not calling for line-by-line
negotiations of the draft.


20. (C) Daerr said that an additional difficulty with the
Human Rights Council is that its membership would mirror the
proportions of the General Assembly. The old Human Rights
Commission, he said, despite all of its faults, had a
membership that represented countries with Western-oriented

human rights practices in greater proportions than the
General Assembly. According to his colleague Peter Rothen,
the old Commission on Human Rights had 27 members who came
from groups that generally were more supportive of human
rights (WEOG, GRULAG and Eastern Europe) and 26 from other
groups. The new Council, he said, would have 21 from WEOG,
GRULAG and Eastern Europe, but would still have 26 from other
groups. In any case, Daerr and Rothen said that if
negotiations continue and it is possible to improve the
draft, the Germans would like to stay in close touch with the
U.S.

State Secretary Boomgaarden
--------------


21. (C) At the end of her session at the Foreign Ministry,
Ambassador Tahir-Kheli met with State Secretary Georg
Boomgaarden. Boomgaarden emphasized that, although the
Germans had gone along with the EU consensus, they were not
satisfied with the draft proposal on the Human Rights Council
presented by GA president Eliasson. Boomgaarden said the
Germans were concerned about who might become a member of
this Council, and he repeated the point made by Daerr and
Rothen about the relatively low representation of
Western-oriented countries. Boomgaarden stressed the
problems that regional solidarity had created for the
Commission on Human Rights. Because of African solidarity,
he said, it had bee impossible to pass resolutions critical
of Zimbbwe.


22. (C) Boomgaarden also briefly discusse the Peace
Building Commission and solicited Ambssador Tahir-Kheli's
views on possible first chalenges for this Commission to
take on. He and th Ambassador agreed that cases like Haiti,
Burund or Liberia might be possibilities. Boomgaardenemphasized that 25 percent of the German Foreign Mnistry
budget goes to the UN. Consequently, theGermans are deeply
interested in using UN resources more efficiently, and are
pleased that at least the start has been made of creating an
ethics office. Ambassador Tahir-Kheli stressed that
independent oversight is important, as is eliminating
mandates that are no longer relevant. Boomgaarden said such
management reforms are usually easiest to make while
allocating money to new programs. Ambassador Tahir-Kheli
emphasized that the U.S. focus is not on saving money, but on
redirecting it to UN programs that address current problems.

TIMKEN JR