RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE FOR SUPPORT OF U.S. CANDIDATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L TOKYO 005065 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR IO/T LTOBEY, EB/CIP/TS DMAY, NASA FOR JTILLMAN C O R R E C T E D C O P Y/////ADDED (C) MARKINGS IN PARAGRAPHS//// E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/06/2016 TAGS: TSPA JA SENV TSPA SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE FOR SUPPORT OF U.S. CANDIDATE STEVEN LATT AS DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL MOBILE SATELLITE ORGANIZATION REF: SECSTATE 140757 Classified By: JOYCE B. RABENS, MINISTER COUNSELOR FOR EST FOR REASONS 1.4 b/d. -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) REFTEL demarche was delivered to Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. NASA Attach met with Japan,s lead delegate to the International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO),Mr. Toru Nakaya, Director of the International Organizations Office, Telecommunications Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) to deliver the brochure on Mr. Lett and relay the talking points. Mr. Yasuhiro Otsuka, Deputy Director, International Organizations Office, also attended. Mr. Nakaya was familiar with Mr. Lett and knew that the USG was nominating him. END SUMMARY. -------------- About Mr. Nakaya -------------- ¶2. (C) EST-NASA Attach Bill Jordan met with Mr. Nakaya and Mr. Otsuka of MIC on August 30th at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Mr. Nakaya knew the USG was nominating Mr. Lett, but had never met him. Mr. Nakaya has only recently (6 months prior) assumed his current position, but has a long record of experience in the GoJ,s international organizations including his prior 4 years (2002 ) 2006) living in Geneva as the representative to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU),a member of the Postal Services of Japan (1999-2002, a member of the Japan Mission to the European Union (Belgium) (1996-1999. Prior, he joined the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (previous name of MIC) in 1985. During his tenure working in the ITU, Mr. Nakaya had met the U.S. Ambassador to the ITU David Gross on multiple occasions. -------------- Delegates -------------- ¶3. (C) Mr. Nakaya indicated that he, Mr. Otsuka and Mr. Yoshiyuki Kato, Official, International Science Cooperation Division, Foreign Policy Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (and previously from MIC) would travel to attend the IMSO meeting in London, September 25-29. In addition, the Japanese Science Counselor from the Embassy of Japan to the U.K. will also probably attend. -------------- Reaction to U.S. Demarche -------------- ¶4. (C) Mr. Nakaya expressed surprise on receiving a personal call regarding the demarche and also explained that there had been no other demarche received from any of the other nominating countries. He said that, to his knowledge, the MIC had never received such a personally-delivered demarche request before. He explained the background of the IMSO,s origins, and that the charter of the IMSO was to oversee the government obligations of Inmarsat. He also acknowledged that the current IMSO organization has become &much more political8 than in the beginning of the IMSO. Mr. Nakaya stated that they were very curious as to what the USG stood to gain by becoming the Director of the IMSO. He pointed out that the current wide spread support within the IMSO membership for the possible expansion of the IMSO oversight seemed counter to the USG goals. Since the Director would be obligated to follow the two-thirds majority vote of the IMSO members, a USG director might be in a position of supporting a non-US supported position. With this background, he asked: &Why does the Department of State want to nominate someone for the Director of the IMSO?8 (Mr. Jordan provided a response in a follow-on e-mail pulling from the talking points of the REFTEL and after consulting with Mr. Doug May/EB/CIP/TS) -------------- Additional comments -------------- ¶5. (C) Mr. Nakaya said that he had just attended a meeting of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO) in July. He said that he had tried to make a point of order at that meeting to have members of the Intelsat company attend, but did not gain enough support to get his position accepted by other members. He made a point of stating that he did not get support from the U.S. Delegate, and did not know the reasoning why. He also stated that there are many UN organization elections going on, including some positions within the ITU. He informed me that Japan has a nominee for the ITU International Standardization Sector, to which Japan was nominating Mr. Yuji Inuoe, Senior Vice President and Chief Telecommunications Officer of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph. Mr. Nakaya also informed me of Mr. Inoue,s website: www.y-inoue.info SCHIEFFER