KLEPTOCRACY: DEMARCHES TO AUSTRIA ON U.S.

UNCLAS VIENNA 002947 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR P, E AND EUR/AGS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KCOR ECON EAID EINV PGOV KCRM AU SUBJECT: KLEPTOCRACY: DEMARCHES TO AUSTRIA ON U.S. NATIONAL STRATEGY REF: STATE 157558 ¶1. Ambassador conveyed reftel demarche to Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser, and Justice Minister Karin Gastinger on September ¶26. DCM discussed the issue separately with Chancellery Foreign Policy Advisor Hans-Peter Manz on September 26. EconPolCouns raised the issue with MFA Americas Director Rudolf Lennkh and with Melitta Schubert, the MFA's Director for Bilateral and Multilateral Economic Relations. Our Austrian interlocutors all expressed appreciation for the information we conveyed, and would welcome more detailed discussions in the months ahead. ¶2. Comment: The Austrian government will be in a caretaker mode as a new governing coalition forms after national elections on October 1. This process is likely to take at least a month, and most observers expect it to last longer. We advised our contacts that the Ambassador would engage her ministerial counterparts on this issue when she called on them after the new government took office. In the meantime, we will continue to discuss cooperation in the fight against kleptocracy with our working level contacts. End comment. McCaw