Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06THEHAGUE1273
2006-06-07 15:04:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy The Hague
Cable title:  

CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): WRAP-UP FOR

Tags:  PARM PREL CWC 
pdf how-to read a cable
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DE RUEHTC #1273/01 1581504
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 071504Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5942
INFO RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
UNCLAS THE HAGUE 001273 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR ISN/CB, VCI/CCB, L/ACV, IO/S
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISP
JOINT STAFF FOR DD PMA-A FOR WTC
COMMERCE FOR BIS (GOLDMAN)
NSC FOR DICASAGRANDE
WINPAC FOR WALTER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PARM PREL CWC
SUBJECT: CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): WRAP-UP FOR
WEEK ENDING JUNE 2

This is CWC-47-06.

-----------
ARTICLE VII
-----------

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 001273

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR ISN/CB, VCI/CCB, L/ACV, IO/S
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISP
JOINT STAFF FOR DD PMA-A FOR WTC
COMMERCE FOR BIS (GOLDMAN)
NSC FOR DICASAGRANDE
WINPAC FOR WALTER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PARM PREL CWC
SUBJECT: CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): WRAP-UP FOR
WEEK ENDING JUNE 2

This is CWC-47-06.

--------------
ARTICLE VII
--------------


1. (U) A WEOG meeting was held on May 29, despite it being a
U.S. holiday. As the focus was the Article VII experience
from EC-45, Betsy Sanders attended. Facilitator Amb. Maartin
Lak (Netherlands) was furious about the failure of the report
language during the EC and implied that it was the fault of
the U.S. Many delegations were concerned about the NAM
making its voice heard in informal, as well as formal,
consultations. It was widely intimated by delegations that
there is now a strong linkage between Article VII and U.S. CW
destruction, with several insisting that the U.S. change its
Article VII tactics because they see us in a vulnerable
position.


2. (U) Amb. Javits and other members of the delegation met
with Lak later in the week. Lak's anger had subsided and the
meeting was very constructive. The delegation stressed what
could be learned to improve the managing the process for
EC-46 -- early draft report language, ensuring that all
delegations have the same text to work from, etc. Lak stated
that the June 8 facilitation would be centered on the next
Technical Secretariat draft progress report, with the June 15
and 29 meetings devoted to report language. A few days
later, Lak provided the del with an advance copy of his
talking points for the June 8 meeting. These points include:
starting afresh, a report on his participation in the NAs
meeting in Mexico City, TS draft report, EC-46, and next
steps. He states that he sees the outcome of EC-46 being an
outline of States Parties needs, identifying where it appears
that progress is not being made, where we are confident
actions are maintaining forward progress, and special cases
where a special attitude may be necessary.

--------------
RE-EXAMINING TENURE
--------------


3. (U) Del rep met with former Senior Planning Officer Ralf
Trapp on May 31. Trapp has been commissioned by the Director
General to do a study of the tenure policy and its
implementation. He returned to the OPCW last week to give
the DG a rough draft of his report on tenure implementation

and to seek feedback on his draft from department heads
within the TS. Trapp implied that his report will advocate
some flexibility in the implementation of tenure for certain
selected positions and said he was concerned about the
potential erosion of technical skills in the TS in the near
future if some modifications to tenure were not considered.
One TS staff member who had seen the rough draft told del rep
that the document was very critical of the TS's tenure
implementation efforts to date. Trapp said he will provide
the final report to the DG by the end of June and the DG
would then consider releasing it as is as a DG note, or
possibly rewriting parts of it and releasing it in some other
form.

--------------
SEARCH FOR A NEW WEOG COORDINATOR
--------------


4. (U) WEOG coordinator Ruth Flint (Switzerland) told del
rep last week that she had been named Ambassador to an
unnamed country and will be leaving at the end of July. She
plans on running the WEOG meetings through EC-46. Several
WEOG delegations have informally mentioned Spanish delegate
Tomas Lopez Vilarino as a possible successor to Flint. It is
not yet clear if Vilarino is interested in the position.

--------------
OCPF SITE SELECTION
--------------


5. (U) On May 30, the facilitator for OCPF site selection
called a meeting of a small number of delegations - U.S.,

Germany, Japan, France (UK was not able to attend) - to
discussion a possible new way to make SP proposals
(nominations) that might be more acceptable to those
delegations that consider geographical proposals unacceptable
because of supposed political implications. The paper from
the meeting (which has been forwarded to ISN/CB and TCD) is
based on a proposal some time ago from Pakistan that would
see SPs making nominations from a list of all OCPF plant
sites. The goal of this concept would be to decrease the
complexity of the facilitator's proposal and minimize the
concerns surrounding collusion.

--------------
FINANCIAL RULES
--------------


6. (U) A short consultation was held on June 1. The
Facilitator (Rick Snelsire, U.S.) had met with interested
delegations (Iran, India, France, Germany) prior to the
meeting to see if they reach an agreement on the three
outstanding issues related to the draft financial rules. Two
of the three issues were resolved and the only outstanding
issue is the procurement related amendments supported by
India and Iran. Germany and France agreed to accept the
original amendments proposed by India and Iran provided the
word "all" was deleted from the amended language. India and
Iran agreed to check with their capitals to see if this would
be acceptable.


7. (U) The only other topic discussed at the consultation
was a housekeeping item brought up by the TS in regards to
the terminology, to change "budget section" to "budget
sub-programme," which would be consistent with the financial
regulations. As if to illustrate why the change in
terminology was needed, Iran and India both questioned how
this would affect the current operation of the budget section
and asked if it was being eliminated. The facilitator
indicated he would schedule the next consultation after he
had a response from the above delegations on the proposed
amended text.

--------------
ARTICLE X
--------------


8. (U) Consultations on May 28 were a re-hash of the meeting
held on May 12, which was a briefing on Joint Assistance
Exercise 2005 in L'viv, Ukraine. Iran still seems annoyed
NATO was involved in the exercise. India, Pakistan and Iran
wanted to know the benefits of the exercise versus the cost.
All three wanted more "details" of what the exercise was
like: what happened, where, when, why and how -- but did not
show up at the May 12 meeting where all was explained by
various participants, including the French representative.
Those three were also concerned why there were only two
States Parties on the evaluation team. U.S. del rep brought
up the notes the TS sent inviting observers and questioned
whether a similar note had been sent for evaluators. The TS
said no, but Italy responded that it had been discussed in
planning meetings and SPs were well aware they could request
adding evaluators from their country to the exercise. Canada
suggested it would be a good idea to have similar exercises
in other regions of the world. France said they will have the
presentation made by their participant available to
delegations soon. The next meeting, on June 8, will discuss
other Article X issues.


9. (U) Javits sends.
ARNALL