ITALY, VENEZUELA NOT NEGOTIATING NAVAL VESSEL SALE

C O N F I D E N T I A L ROME 000494 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/15/2016 TAGS: MARR MASS PREL PARM VE IT EXPORT CONTROLS SUBJECT: ITALY, VENEZUELA NOT NEGOTIATING NAVAL VESSEL SALE REF: STATE 21457 Classified By: Political Minister Counselor David D. Pearce for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) PolMinCouns delivered reftel demarche to MFA Director General for the Americas Claudio Bisogniero February 15. He noted public statements by the GOV defense minister suggesting that Venezuela might look to Italy.for submarines, urged the GOI not to contemplate such sales, and reviewed USG concerns about a GOV arms build-up. ¶2. (C) Bisogniero responded that Italy was not in negotiations relating to the sale of naval vessels of any kind, whether surface vessels or submarines, with Venezuela. And he would inform us ahead of time if this were ever to change. Italy had very strict arms export laws and those laws required MFA approval in advance for a company to enter into any negotiations for a sale, and then MFA approval again to finalize it. ¶3. (C) Comment: While several media reports have mentioned Italy as a potential source of submarines for the GOV, post has not been able to find any corroborating information linking Italy to such a sale. Bisogniero himself obviously had been at some pains to run this down with Italy's export control authorities. As during the recent visit of A/S Shannon, he made clear the GOI shared USG concerns about Venezuela. He said he did not know what had prompted the Venezuelan defense minister's statement, but was emphatic that Italian submarine sales were neither in progress nor in prospect. End comment. SPOGLI