SLOVENIA: SATISFIED THAT IT IS PULLING ITS WEIGHT

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 000745 SIPDIS SIPDIS EUR/NCE FOR MNORDBERG E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/16/2016 TAGS: PREL MARR MOPS NATO PINS SI SUBJECT: SLOVENIA: SATISFIED THAT IT IS PULLING ITS WEIGHT FOR NATO IN AFGHANISTAN REF: SECSTATE 186256 Classified By: COM for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (SBU) On November 15 PolMilOff delivered reftel demarche to Zorica Bukinac Cimpersek, a staffer in the NATO Office of the Security Policy Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. PolMilOff also acknowledged Slovenia's long-standing commitment to Afghanistan, praising the 54 troops Slovenia has had deployed in Herat and Kabul since March 2003 and the recent donation of ten thousand AK-47 automatic rifles and two million pieces of ammunition from the GoS to the Afghanistan National Army (value USD $665,000). ¶2. (C) Cimpersek, a lead MFA planner for the Riga Summit, thanked PolMilOff for the information and said that she had no new information about Slovenia's commitments to Afghanistan beyond the existing troop deployment and the recent donation. When pressed for information about lifting caveats on Slovenian troops currently stationed in Afghanistan, Cimpersek said that the Ministry of Defense was taking the lead on the issue and she had no new information updating Minister of Defense Erjavec's comments in late September that the Ministry of Defense was working towards a parliamentary rule change that would allow the caveats to be lifted. ¶3. (C) COMMENT. The Government of Slovenia is satisfied that its current deployment to Afghanistan represents the best it can do to support NATO operations. With the arms and ammunition donation, Slovenia is working to show that it is engaged, responsible, and committed in Afghanistan despite its inability to increase troop numbers. We expect the deployment of 600 troops from its 10th motorized battalion to Kosovo in February 2007 to dominate Slovenia's international contributions for the foreseeable future, with small contributions going to other areas where Slovenia wants to show support but is unable to deliver significant numbers of troops. The caveat issue will show how deep Prime Minister Jansa's influence runs, and if he has enough control over the Slovenian Parliament to win its approval to put Slovenian troops directly in the line of fire. END COMMENT. ROBERTSON