CYPRIOT AMBASSADOR IN WARSAW TO REPRESENT GOC AT

UNCLAS NICOSIA 000790 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: MNUC KNNP PARM US PL CY SUBJECT: CYPRIOT AMBASSADOR IN WARSAW TO REPRESENT GOC AT THE PSI HIGH-LEVEL POLITICAL MEETING REF: STATE 84640 (SBU) Polchief delivered reftel message to Michalis Stavrinos, Director of MFA's Division of Legal Affairs, on May 26. Stavrinos indicated that he had been planning to head the Cypriot delegation to the June 23 PSI High-Level Planning Meeting, but had been forced to withdraw because of pressing business in Nicosia. Instead, the MFA had sent detailed instructions to the Cypriot Ambassador in Warsaw, who would represent the GOC at the HLPM. Stavrinos stressed that the GOC understood the importance of the HLPM in combating the proliferation of WMD. The ROC's decision to be represented at the Ambassadorial level was not, in any way, intended to signal a lack of confidence in the PSI. It was simply a function of an over-stretched Cypriot foreign affairs bureaucracy struggling to cope with competing demands and the burden of EU membership. SCHLICHER