NORWAY CWC HOST COUNTRY AGREEMENT VISIT

C O N F I D E N T I A L OSLO 000769 SIPDIS SIPDIS NOFORN THE HAGUE FOR CWC DEL DEPT FOR ISN CB E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/13/2016 TAGS: PARM PREL NO KTIA SUBJECT: NORWAY CWC HOST COUNTRY AGREEMENT VISIT REF: SECSTATE 90229 Classified By: p/e Counselor Mike Hammer, reason, 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C/NOFORN) MFA advisor Geir Toennessen contacted us on June 13 to inform us that Norway would be pleased to receive a U.S. delegation to discuss the remaining issues concerning a Host Country Agreement (HCA) on how to deal with any possible challenge inspections of U.S. storage facilities in Norway that could occur under the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Toennessen said that either June 27 or June 28 would work for Norway. Post requests that Washington inform post immediately if one of these dates is feasible but also notes that June 27 is the date of the Embassy's annual Independence Day celebration, so Embassy participation in any meetings on June 27 will be sharply limited. June 28 would be a better date for these discussions in Post's perspective. ¶2. (C/NOFORN) Toennessen said that Norway had no written comments to return to us on previous U.S. comments to the Norwegian HCA draft. Toennessen said, however, that the Norwegian MFA and MOD lawyers were in complete agreement that Norway could not/not accept our suggestion that the U.S. would be the inspected party. If there is a challenge inspection, Norway would have to be the inspected party, Toennessen said. Apart from this major exception to our comments, Toennessen thought that Norway could agree relatively easily the rest of the issues we raise with the Norwegian draft. Visit Oslo's Classified website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/oslo/index.cf m WEBSTER