PRIME MINISTER MAY DECIDE ON AFGHANISTAN BEFORE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRATISLAVA 000921 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/25/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR AF LO SUBJECT: PRIME MINISTER MAY DECIDE ON AFGHANISTAN BEFORE RIGA, BUT NOT ANNOUNCE UNTIL EARLY DECEMBER REF: BRATISLAVA 907 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Lawrence R. Silverman for reason 1.4 b and d. ¶1. (C) Jan Foltin, Foreign Policy Advisor to President Gasparovic, told CDA November 24, that Gasparovic, FM Kubis and DefMin Kasicky will meet with PM Fico Monday, Nov. 27 to make a (hopefully) final decision on whether to agree to NATO,s request to move Slovak engineering troops from Kabul to Kandahar. Foltin said Gasparovic firmly supports such a move. While Foltin certainly hoped the decision would be positive, he was still not certain about the PM. Gasparovic will make the case for a positive decision at the meeting. Foltin, who will accompany Gasparovic to Riga (Gasparovic will head the delegation),said he even thought the GOS decision would be communicated informally to NATO prior to the Riga Summit, but that Gasparovic would not be able to announce it at Riga. In this case as in many others under the Fico government, &all politics is local politics,8 and Foltin, like others, told us that Fico does not want any decision announced until after local elections throughout Slovakia on Dec. 2. (Comment: we do not think Afghanistan is on the voters, minds, but the PM may think so.) Foltin agreed with what our MOD contacts have told us: that the British presentation about the provision of security to the engineers for a move to Kandahar answered all the questions the GOS had. The GOS did not need any further assurances. It was all up to the PM. SILVERMAN