FOREIGN SECRETARY BECKETT UNABLE TO ATTEND UNGA

C O N F I D E N T I A L LONDON 006714 SIPDIS SIPDIS PLEASE PASS OES/ETC CHRISTINE DAWSON E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/15/2016 TAGS: SENV UK SUBJECT: FOREIGN SECRETARY BECKETT UNABLE TO ATTEND UNGA CAWT PRESS EVENT REF: STATE 148162 Classified By: EST OFFICER JASON HAHN FOR REASONS 1.4 B AND D ¶1. (U) Ambassador Tuttle wrote to Foreign Secretary Beckett on September 12 inviting her to participate in Secretary Rice's Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking (CAWT) press event on the margins of the UNGA on September 22. HMG contacts tell us that Barry Gardiner, the junior minister responsible for CAWT at HMG's Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) also wrote to Secretary Beckett urging her to attend. ¶2. (U) On 15 September the Foreign and Commonwealth Office told us that Foreign Secretary Beckett would be unable to attend the CAWT press event because she will be attending a Commonwealth Foreign Minister's meeting at the same time. ¶3. (C) POLOFF spoke with contacts in the FCO's UN Division on September 15. They told us Beckett had made a decision not to break away from the Commonwealth Meeting for the CAWT event because "she could not be seen to not take the Commonwealth meeting seriously." ¶4. (U) FCO and Defra contacts have suggested a change in venue or time for the press event. They have indicated that Foreign Secretary Beckett might be able to participate if the venue was shifted to a place closer to the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers' meeting venue (in the UN Building). ¶5. (C) COMMENT: While Foreign Secretary Beckett's inability to participate would be dissapointing, Secretary Rice's invitation has highlighted to HMG the importance that the USG attaches to CAWT. Rescheduling or changing the meeting venue, while difficult, may prove to be the only way to include Foreign Secretary Beckett in the CAWT event. Visit London's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/london/index. cfm Tuttle