UKRAINE/GUAM: ENERGIZING GUAM MEMBER STATES

UNCLAS KIEV 000718 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV GUAM SUBJECT: UKRAINE/GUAM: ENERGIZING GUAM MEMBER STATES (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for Internet distribution. ¶1. (U) This is an action request. Please see para 4. ¶2. (SBU) EUR/ACE FSA Director in December 2005 advised GUAM Embassy representatives that the USG would not wish to continue funding the U.S.-GUAM framework project or supporting GUAM Secretariat development unless member states themselves funded the GUAM Information Center. As a follow-up and in consultation with Embassies Chisinau, Baku and Tbilisi (ref A),we recommend the Department instruct Embassies Kiev, Tbilisi, Baku, and Chisinau to deliver a demarche (proposed text in para 3) calling upon host governments to show tangible commitment to the success of GUAM, including by paying 2005 dues to the GUAM Information Center budget. ¶3. (SBU) Begin text of proposed talking points: -- The U.S. Government welcomed the principles espoused by GUAM in the April 22, 2005 Chisinau Declaration and the commitment by member states to put into practice these principles through the activities of GUAM. Therefore, the U.S. Government has for a second year agreed to fund U.S.-GUAM Framework projects. -- However, for the U.S. Government to remain committed to providing in excess of one million dollars for such projects, it must see a tangible commitment to the organization by member states. -- GUAM members agreed at the April 2005 Chisinau Summit that GUAM needed to establish a GUAM Information Center as a necessary beginning to enhance GUAM's operational effectiveness. We share this view and applaud the Government of Ukraine for paying in December its dues of $21,000 to the Center's budget. We also welcome the Government of Ukraine's commitment to identify a permanent facility for the GUAM Information Center in Kiev and urge it to conclude this process as quickly as possible. -- The Government of the United States strongly urges the Governments of Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan to pay expeditiously their 2005 dues to the GUAM Information Center budget. ¶4. (SBU) Action request: Please advise regarding above-recommended demarche. ¶5. (U) Visit Embassy Kiev's classified website: www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/kiev. HERBST