Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06VIENNA3286
2006-11-08 16:28:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Vienna
Cable title:  

AUSTRIA AGREES: KOSOVO NOT A PRECEDENT

Tags:  PBTS PREL UP AU 
pdf how-to read a cable
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INFO RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
RUEHKB/AMEMBASSY BAKU 0334
RUEHBW/AMEMBASSY BELGRADE 0785
RUEHCH/AMEMBASSY CHISINAU 0532
RUEHKV/AMEMBASSY KYIV 0006
RUEHVJ/AMEMBASSY SARAJEVO 0131
RUEHSQ/AMEMBASSY SKOPJE 1253
RUEHSI/AMEMBASSY TBILISI 0618
RUEHTI/AMEMBASSY TIRANA 1035
RUEHYE/AMEMBASSY YEREVAN 0291
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0162
RUEHPS/USOFFICE PRISTINA 0669
C O N F I D E N T I A L VIENNA 003286 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/AGS - SAINT-ANDRE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/08/2016
TAGS: PBTS PREL UP AU
SUBJECT: AUSTRIA AGREES: KOSOVO NOT A PRECEDENT

REF: STATE 179829

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires a.i. Gregory E. Phillips. Reason:
C O N F I D E N T I A L VIENNA 003286

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/AGS - SAINT-ANDRE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/08/2016
TAGS: PBTS PREL UP AU
SUBJECT: AUSTRIA AGREES: KOSOVO NOT A PRECEDENT

REF: STATE 179829

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires a.i. Gregory E. Phillips. Reason: 1.
4 (b) and (d).


1. (SBU) Charge presented reftel demarche on November 7 to
Hannes Porias, the Austrian MFA's A/S-equivalent Director for
Eastern Europe, and Valerie Zirl, the MFA's South-East Europe
desk officer.


2. (C) Porias agreed with our message, and undertook to
support it. He said it was increasingy problematic that
states whose territory was the scene of "frozen conflicts" --
Georgia, Moldova, and others -- were expressing concern that
a Kosovo solution could prejudice their cases for territorial
integrity. Porias added that the Chinese also seemed to fear
that Kosovo would be a precedent for separatist movements.


3. (C) A Kosovo solution (i.e., an independent Kosovo, as we
described in our points) would not ultimately be the subject
of a negotiated settlement with Belgrade, much as we all
would like that to happen, in Porias's view. The problem was
that Russia and China wanted Belgrade to be part of an
agreement. In the end, the UN Security Council had to be the
body to make the decision on Kosovo, since UNSCR 1244
established the Security Council as the "master of Kosovo's
future status," as Porias put it.


4. (C) Porias expressed concern that a delay in the Serbian
elections would almost certainly mean holding a campaign
after the Christmas season. This meant the elections would
not be until after January 20, at the earliest.


5. (C) As a relatively minor point, Porias asked for
clarification of our comment that frozen conflicts like
Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria "predate the Kosovo
situation." If we used this as a talking point, he said, we
had to be wary of getting bogged down in a historical
argument. He noted that this was true if one considered "the
Kosovo situation" to mean the initiation of armed conflict in

1999. However, one could argue that today's Kosovo problem
goes back as far as 1981.
Phillips