FORUM FOR THE FUTURE PLANNING MEETING, MOSCOW, MAY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 MOSCOW 006130

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SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/07/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV KMPI RS
SUBJECT: FORUM FOR THE FUTURE PLANNING MEETING, MOSCOW, MAY
30, 2006


Classified By: Minister Counselor for Political Affairs Kirk Augustine.
Reasons: 1.4(B/D).


1. (SBU) Summary. Participants at the second Broader Middle
East and North Africa (BMENA) Forum for the Future planning
meeting agreed that the 2006 Forum will take place at the
Dead Sea on December 3, preceded by a senior officials
meeting and working dinner for ministers on December 2.
Jordan circulated a draft agenda for the ministerial and
requested comments. Participants discussed the role of civil
society representatives in the Forum, with Egypt arguing that
the NGO role at the 2005 Bahrain Forum was too large, and
other participants saying it was a good precedent. Italy and
Egypt tabled proposals for an inter-cultural dialogue, but
most other participants felt that it fell outside the scope
of the BMENA initiative. Participants agreed on four themes
for the Civil Society Dialogue. Russia outlined its
independent plans for academic seminars on Middle East topics
to be held in Moscow in June and St. Petersburg in September.
The next planning meeting will be held in early September in
Jordan. End summary.


2. (U) Russia and Jordan co-chaired the second 2006 Forum for
the Future planning meeting in Moscow on May 30. The
Department was represented by NEA DAS Scott Carpenter, EUR
PDAS Kurt Volker, DRL DAS Erica Barks-Ruggles, NEA/PI Blake
Thorkelson, and Embassy Moscow poloff Les Viguerie.

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OPENING SESSION
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3. (SBU) Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov
opened the meeting by saying that Russia was satisfied with
progress under its G8 presidency, including continuity for
prior G8 initiatives such as BMENA. He noted that reform is
being hampered by conflicts in the region, including the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq. Jordanian MFA legal
director Bisher Khasawnah said that the overarching Forum
theme for 2006 is political and economic empowerment and that
all delegations had agreed on the importance of civil society
participation. The Russian Ministries of Education and
Finance provided read-outs of the BMENA Education and Finance
Ministerials held in Sharm el-Sheikh in late May.

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FORUM FOR THE FUTURE PREPARATIONS
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4. (SBU) Turning to the Forum itself, participants agreed
that the ministerial will take place on December 3 at the
Dead Sea, with senior officials meeting the day before.
Jordan said that the Forum would cost $850,000, offered to
share a detailed budget, and proposed a trust-fund type
arrangement that would support the 2006 and future Forum
meetings through voluntary donations from governments.
Participants agreed that ministers should hold an informal
dinner the evening of December 2 to discuss regional
political issues. DAS Carpenter said that the December 3
ministerial is on the Secretary,s schedule, but we are
unsure of her participation in the dinner as we do not know
when she will be arriving and departing Jordan.


5. (SBU) Jordan circulated a draft agenda for the ministerial
session. Participants agreed that the agenda would be
discussed further at the September planning meeting, and
Jordan asked all delegations to send comments on the agenda.
Jordan will circulate new drafts of the senior officials and
ministerial meetings before the next planning meeting, which
will take place sometime between September 4 and 13 in Amman.

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CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION
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6. (SBU) The UK FCO,s Frances Guy and Bahrain MFA,s Shaikh
Abdul Aziz bin Mubarak Al Khalifa described civil society
activities in 2005. Guy stressed that the 2005 Civil Society
Dialogue themes were linked to the Forum agenda, and that NGO
representatives were self-selecting. Shaikh Abdul Aziz noted
that the balance of government and NGO delegations in the

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2005 Forum was about 50/50, including participants from the
Civil Society and Democracy Assistance Dialogues. The
presence of NGOs is of utmost importance, he said. Shaikh
Abdul Aziz also described Bahrain,s experience with the
¶llel8 civil society conference, which the GOB
facilitated, while insisting that the conference,s themes
must not overlap with Civil Society Dialogue themes.
Allowing 300 civil society representatives to participate in
the parallel conference prevented any unrest or
demonstrations.


7. (SBU) Guy noted that much work is already being done on
the proposed themes for 2006 (on transparency, legal
environment, youth engagement, and independent judiciary),so
it is important not to duplicate that work. Participants
endorsed her offer to work with the World Bank,s Middle East
Development Forum on the transparency and youth themes and
with the UN Development Program on the judicial theme. Guy
will organize a meeting with them on the margins of the
Democracy Assistance Dialogue meeting in Yemen in late June.
DAS Carpenter offered U.S. sponsorship of the legal
environment theme, which the group welcomed.

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EGYPTIAN OBJECTIONS
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8. (SBU) Egyptian MFA Assistant to the Minister Mohammad
Shaaban raised objections to the plans for civil society
participation. He wanted to avoid the Bahrain format, which
was a joint meeting of civil society and governments that he
felt was dominated by civil society. He expressed concerns
that some NGOs are actually just individuals, and are not
legally registered. Jordanian Ministry of Planning official
Nasser Shraideh said that the Bahrain precedent would be
respected: civil society representatives will be present
throughout the ministerial to report on their work and
reflect on government-led initiatives. &We can,t go
back,8 he said, a sentiment that was echoed by the entire
U.S., UK, German, EU, and Bahraini delegations. Shraideh
also said that Forum organizers would not check whether each
participating NGO was legally registered or not.


9. (SBU) In the discussion that followed, Moroccan MFA DG
Youssef Amrani said that NGOs that participate in the Forum
should be inclusive and representative of NGOs throughout the
region. He said there are too many agenda items in the
ministerial, and there should be a balance between topics
discussed by senior officials and ministers. Russia and
Jordan agreed on this point. German MFA director Andreas
Reinicke endorsed the Bahrain example of NGO participation
and said that the German MFA would be meeting with NGOs next
month to encourage them to participate in BMENA projects.
DAS Carpenter emphasized the importance of civil society
participation in the Forum and said that the parallel civil
society event is a political necessity to show civil society
that it can and should be involved. Vershinin said that only
those civil society organizations that are &legally
registered in terms of national legislation8 should be
invited to the Forum.


10. (SBU) At the end of the meeting, Shaaban reiterated that
civil society should not supersede ministers, and said that
his minister might not attend if the Forum was going to
become a &civil society exercise.8 Vershinin said that a
civil society &marathon8 was not a good idea. DAS
Carpenter agreed that no one wants ministers to sit for 90
minutes of NGO presentations, and said the challenge is how
to structure the agenda more interactively. He said the
group should leave the agenda to Jordan and Russia to sort
out, but that all governments had agreed to maintain at least
the level of NGO participation at the Bahrain Forum. Shaikh
Abdul Aziz stressed that civil society never had &an upper
role8 at the 2005 Forum, because clear guidelines were given
to the NGOs that they should discuss issues with application
across the region, not just to one country. In prior Forums,
it was the ministers, not civil society, who &hijacked8 the
meeting with long interventions. He offered to work with
Jordan on the agenda.

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ITALIAN AND EGYPTIAN PROPOSALS ON DIALOGUE ON PLURALISM
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11. (SBU) Italian BMENA coordinator Sergio Scarantino
circulated a proposal for a 2007 conference in Rome on a
&Dialogue on Pluralism,8 saying there is a need to increase
dialogue across cultures, religions, and ethical systems.
This work would fall under the Democracy Assistance Dialogue
(DAD) framework and complement the work of the Alliance of
Civilizations. The goals would be to establish an inventory
of current interfaith dialogues and NGOs active in this area,
to examine the coexistence of different cultures and
religions, and to balance freedom of expression with
tolerance. A working group would determine what constitutes
an offense to religion. Ambassador Shaaban then noted that
the Sea Island BMENA statement includes a mention of work on
tolerance and respect that has not been followed up. He
called for a dialogue of cultures, including different
religions and traditions, and said that it should fall
outside the DAD but within BMENA.


12. (SBU) Several participants questioned these proposals.
DAS Carpenter said that inter-cultural dialogue should be the
subject of an entire initiative, linked to the Alliance of
Civilizations, EuroMed, and OSCE processes, but should fall
outside of BMENA. This view was seconded by Morocco, Turkey,
Jordan, the UK, and Germany. Scarantino said that Italy
would take stock of these observations, but noted that while
other initiatives included only governments, the Italian
proposal included civil society, media, and experts.

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RUSSIAN SEMINARS
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13. (SBU) Russian MFA MENA deputy director Oleg Ozerov
described the two seminars Russia will organize on BMENA
topics in 2006. The first, on June 7 in Moscow, is entitled
&BMENA Region: Political Reforms and Security8 and will
focus on political processes, security and non-proliferation,
and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The seminar will be
sponsored by Moscow State University and participants will
include prominent academics from Russia, the UAE, and the UK,
Russian businessmen, and Lebanese diplomatic officials.
Russia circulated a concept paper for the second seminar,
&BMENA: An Overview of Trends in Education, Economics, and
Politics, and the General Prospects of the Region,8
sponsored by St. Petersburg State University in September or
October.

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OTHER COMMENTS
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14. (SBU) Japan: MFA MENA director Motohide Yoshikawa
circulated a presentation on Japan,s work on vocational
training and women,s empowerment. He said he is
encountering &workshop fatigue8 among Japanese experts and
called for more concrete workshops and fewer conferences. He
complained that Japan,s $10 million contribution to the
IFC,s Private Enterprise Partnership had not been used. The
European Commission,s Andres Bassols Soldevila called for
more information on all BMENA events and said that civil
society should be included as much as possible. Bahrain,s
Shaikh Abdul Aziz said that the Center for Entrepreneurial
Excellence in Bahrain is &struggling8 because only the U.S.
and UK have supported it. He called for G8 support for the
Center. Shaaban circulated a list of responses to Egypt,s
proposal to establish a consortium of independent G8 and
BMENA research institutions and academic centers to offer
advice on regional development, and requested that all
governments send contact information of institutions that
would be interested.

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COMMENT
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15. (C) An important precedent was set at the Bahrain Forum
for the Future in November 2005, where civil society
organizations sat at the table as equal participants with

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governments. That this precedent is now being questioned is
troubling. The U.S. will need to engage with Jordan, to
provide moral support as it develops the final structure for
the Forum; with Bahrain, which can offer Jordan useful
lessons learned from 2005; and with Egypt, to gauge the
seriousness of Ambassador Shaaban,s threat of a boycott if
the civil society/government roles are not more &balanced.8
The planning meeting showed Egypt to be isolated in its
position, but a comment by Russia,s Vershinin that the Forum
must be &worth my minister,s time8 demonstrates the
importance of crafting an agenda that continues robust and
equal civil society participation while also giving a central
role to government representatives. Vershinin and Shaaban,s
statement that the legal registration of participating NGOs
should be vetted is another example of the continuing
difficulties we will face with Russia and Egypt on NGO
issues)-not only in the context of the Forum for the Future,
but also in our bilateral relations. We will need to be
vigilant in supporting the strong role of our civil society
partners in the face of this opposition.


16. (C) This cable has been cleared by Deputy Assistant
Secretaries Scott Carpenter, Erica Barks-Ruggles and Kurt

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