LUXEMBOURG'S PM ON THE NATO SUMMIT

C O N F I D E N T I A L LUXEMBOURG 000641 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS NCS FOR JUDY ANSLEY, DEFENSE FOR DAS FATA AND MAJ BOGLE, BRUSSELS FOR DATT GAGNON AND ODC HURD E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/13/2016 TAGS: PREL NATO PM LU SUBJECT: LUXEMBOURG'S PM ON THE NATO SUMMIT Classified By: DCM STEVEN H. KRAFT, FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D) ¶1. (C) During an 11 December meeting the Ambassador and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker discussed the NATO Summit, the NATO Response Force (NRF),and the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. The Ambassador expressed her appreciation to the PM for Luxembourg's support for NATO and ISAF. Juncker said he appreciated the Ambassador,s comments especially since earlier in the year he felt that he was "all alone" as the one European leader strongly supporting NATO. Juncker also said that this is why he felt it was important for him to be so vocal about his support for NATO, including writing a pro-NATO editorial entitled "Why is NATO Good for All of Us?" The editorial was published on 7 December in the German weekly "Rheinische Merkur." ¶2. (C) Juncker was clearly pleased with the Summit itself. He said that holding the Summit in the former Soviet Republic of Latvia had been "very moving." He was also delighted to have had the opportunity to speak with President Bush, commenting that the President "is a man who speaks from conviction" and who "doesn't only do things when they are popular." Juncker expressed some concern that the USG was pushing "too aggressively" on both Georgia and Ukraine's relationship with NATO at the risk of provoking Russia. Turning to NRF and ISAF Juncker reiterated Luxembourg's support for the NRF and underlined how important he thought it was for "even tiny Luxembourg" to participate in both NRF and ISAF with troops, not just financial support. (NOTE: Luxembourg has 9 soldiers participating in ISAF and 2 soldiers participating in NRF-7. The GOL has also committed itself to the goal of being able to expand its NRF contribution up to 20 soldiers by the 2009/2010 timeframe - NRF-15/16. END NOTE.) ¶3. (C/NF) COMMENT: Perhaps it is a function of the afterglow of Riga or the mire which has become the debate over the European Constitutional treaty but Juncker's overall tone regarding NATO was markedly different then that of a year ago. In earlier meetings with the Ambassador there were more references to EU-centric security matters like the Common Foreign and Security Policy/European Security and Defense Policy and the Battle group concept. He raised none of these issues in the 11 December meeting. WAGNER