BULGARIA SUPPORTS AMENDING EMBARGO RESOLUTION,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SOFIA 001425 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/06/2016 TAGS: EUN INRO PHUM PREL UNGA UN CU BU SUBJECT: BULGARIA SUPPORTS AMENDING EMBARGO RESOLUTION, SAYS CUBA SHOWING SIGNS OF PRAGMATISM REF: STATE 163498 Classified By: DCM A. KARAGIANNIS FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D) ¶1. (C) Panteley Spassov of the MFA's UN and Global Issues Department agreed that the Cuban Embargo Resolution at UNGA should be balanced with a statement on Cuba's human rights record. He said the GOB will seriously consider our proposed language for the amendment but doubted our text would pass unchanged. ¶2. (C) We report for the record that separately Spassov shared his impressions of the Havana NAM conference, which he attended as an observer. (Note: The Bulgarians were lobbying for a UNESCO seat, competing against Belarus). He was impressed by what he termed the growing pragmatism of Cuban working-level experts. ¶3. (C) While the conference was soaked with anti-American and revolutionary rhetoric, he saw the Cubans successfully steer the NAM position paper from fiery language toward "sensible" proposals. Cuba is becoming the "realist" in the NAM "troika" (Cuba, Egypt, Malaysia),said Spassov. Deputy Foreign Minister Todor Churov, who was also in Havana, attributed some of this perceived pragmatism to mid-level officials "looking beyond Fidel." BEYRLE