Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06MOSCOW5030
2006-05-12 13:05:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Moscow
Cable title:  

MOSCOW OPPOSES CENTRAL AND SOUTH ASIAN

Tags:  PREL PGOV SNAR RS 
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VZCZCXRO2761
OO RUEHDBU
DE RUEHMO #5030 1321305
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 121305Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5697
INFO RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE IMMEDIATE 0183
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 4026
RUEHTA/AMEMBASSY ALMATY PRIORITY 0546
RUEHNT/AMEMBASSY TASHKENT PRIORITY 4853
RUEHEK/AMEMBASSY BISHKEK PRIORITY 2506
RUEHAH/AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT PRIORITY 2008
C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 005030 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/12/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV SNAR RS
SUBJECT: MOSCOW OPPOSES CENTRAL AND SOUTH ASIAN
COUNTER-NARCOTICS AND SECURITY CONFERENCE

REF: STATE 76665

Classified By: Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs Kirk Augustine.
Reasons: 1.4 (b/d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 005030

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/12/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV SNAR RS
SUBJECT: MOSCOW OPPOSES CENTRAL AND SOUTH ASIAN
COUNTER-NARCOTICS AND SECURITY CONFERENCE

REF: STATE 76665

Classified By: Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs Kirk Augustine.
Reasons: 1.4 (b/d).


1. (C) Poloff discussed reftel demarche points May 12 with
Anatoliy Taksubayev, Deputy Director of the MFA Third CIS
(Central Asia) Department. (NOTE: We were unable to make
this demarche to the MFA New Threats and Challenges
Department, as the Deputy Director and principal staffers
responsible for counternarcotics were traveling.) Taksubayev
said he was familiar with the conference planned for May
15-17 in Dushanbe, and it had already been decided Russia
would not participate. He understood that other invited
countries were making their own decisions about
participation, and many might participate "at one level or
another."


2. (C) Asked why Moscow was opposed to the initiative,
Taksubayev said the GOR believed the Central and South Asian
Counter-Narcotics and Security working group was duplicative
of other regional mechanisms to combat narcotics trafficking,
and the GOR saw no purpose in it. He agreed that Russia, the
countries of the region, and the United States all shared a
common interest in fighting narcotics trafficking and said he
would welcome further discussion on common approaches.


3. (C) COMMENT. Moscow has, as reftel notes, expressed to
us on many occasions and in many contexts its interest in
jointly fighting narcotics trafficking in Central Asia. We
suspect that its apparent hostility to the Dushanbe
conference is connected to suspicions -- also expressed many
times to us over the past year -- that the United States is
intent on creating a regional organization designed to
compete with the organizations Moscow prefers (SCO, CSTO, and
others). The involvement in the Dushanbe conference of the
Marshall Center, where in the GOR view a former U.S.
Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan allegedly detailed a USG plan to
create a Central Asian organization to address regional
issues, from which Russia would be excluded, may have
affected Russian attitudes. Short of offering Russian
government involvement in future working group planning or
finding other ways of increasing transparency and thus easing
Russian suspicion, we expect the GOR will continue to oppose
initiatives under these auspices.
BURNS