LITHUANIAN FM TO RAISE TURKEY, BELARUS, EUROPEAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 VILNIUS 001089

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/07/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM EUN LH
SUBJECT: LITHUANIAN FM TO RAISE TURKEY, BELARUS, EUROPEAN
COUNCIL AT DECEMBER GAERC

REF: A. STATE 194456 B. STATE 195044

Classified By: Pol/Econ Chief Rebecca Dunham for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d
)


1. (C) Summary. Lithuania's FM plans to intervene at the
December 11 GAERC to support Turkey's EU accession,
discourage the repeal of GSP for Belarus, and oppose draft
language in the upcoming European Council conclusions about
"integration capacity" and "constitutional treaty reform."
The Minister has prepared talking points on the China-Arms
Embargo that support our position, but will intervene only if
there is prolonged discussion. End Summary.

Lithuania does not support lifting China arms embargo
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2. (C) Ambassador delivered ref A points to Lithuanian
Political Director Zygimantis Pavilionis December 7, and we
delivered all reftel points the same day to the MFA's Common
Foreign and Security Policy Division Head Tomas Gulbinas, who
prepares the Minister's briefing book for the GAERC.
Political Director Pavilionis told the Ambassador that
Lithuania will continue to support the U.S. position opposing
lifting the EU's China arms embargo. Gulbinas read us the
Minister's talking points on the EU China arms embargo: "Any
decision on the embargo had to be taken in close coordination
with the United States. Any decision to lift the embargo had
to be based on criteria about democracy and regional
stability. The current human rights situation in China made
it inappropriate to consider these criteria now." He added
that Lithuania completely agrees that the embargo and the
Code of Conduct should not be linked, and said that this was
also the position of the Commission. Gulbinas opined that
the EU would not find consensus on conclusions about the
embargo at the GAERC, and that the embargo would remain in
place.

Lithuania supports keeping Turkey in accession process
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3. (C) The Minister's talking points on Turkey's EU accession
agree broadly with ours. "It is of the utmost importance to
keep Turkey involved in the EU accession process," reads the
key Lithuanian point. The talking points on Turkey are
changing, Gulbinas said, as he had just received a fax from
Finland saying that Turkey had agreed to open its ports to
Cypriot ships. Lithuania had prepared to argue for the
"moderate road" of closing eight chapters in Turkey's
accession negotiations, but the Minister will see how the
situation develops.

Lithuania to intervene on Council Conclusions
--------------


4. (C) Gulbinas said that the FM will intervene on two points
regarding the Council Conclusions from the December 14-15
European Council. First, in line with Lithuania's strong
support for an "Open Doors" accession policy, the Foreign
Minister will discourage adding language about "integration
capacity" to the EU's criteria for accession. Second, the
Minister will support changing language about "Constitutional
Treaty reform" to "preparing the ground for the way ahead."
Gulbinas said that as Lithuania was the first to ratify the
constitutional treaty, the GOL is reluctant to support
reforms that would require Parliament to ratify another one.

Lithuania Discourages withdrawing GSP from Belarus
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5. (C) During "Any Other Business" Vaitiekunas plans to
intervene to discourage the EU's withdrawal of GSP benefits
from Belarus. He said that the GOL does not oppose the
withdrawal in principle, based on Belarus's labor practices.
Nevertheless, "the timing is bad politically" he said, and
would strengthen Lukashenko and be counterproductive in
Western Europe's efforts to garner favorable public opinion
in Belarus. Lithuania had earlier blocked the move in the
133 committee, but they have been overruled in that committee
and now the issue is in COREPERS, where Lithuania "will try
to obstruct" the decision, in part by working to keep it off
the agenda, for as long as possible. According to Gulbinas,
Lithuania's only allies on this were Poland and Latvia.
Gulbinas said that Lithuania advocates this position in terms
of Belarus's democracy only, and (implausibly) denied
Lithuania's economic interests in its neighbor.

President to intervene on neighborhood policy, Central Asia
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6. (C) President Adamkus is planning an intervention on
European Neighborhood Policy at the Dec 14-15 European

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Council. Adamkus will endorse the December 4 Commission
publication "Strengthening the European Neighborhood Policy"
which adopted ideas similar to those in Lithuania's ENP
paper that the Ministry circulated this summer. Adamkus's
prepared remarks contain one sentence about increasing the
EU's activities in Central Asia.

Afghanistan
--------------


7. (C) Gulbinas said that he did not anticipate a long
discussion about Afghanistan at the GAERC because almost
everything had been agreed at lower levels. The Lithuanians
are pleased with European support for PRTs in Afghanistan,
from which they expect to benefit directly.

MEPP
--------------


8. (C) Lithuania is cool to the Spanish Middle East peace
initiative and will continue to support the Quartet
principles and the Roadmap as the best way forward. Jurate
Ramoskiene of the MFA's Middle East and Africa Division told
us December 8 that Germany will make a presentation at the
GAERC about strengthening the Roadmap during its upcoming
presidency, but she is unsure what kind of interventions
there will be on the new initiative since there has not been
a working group since the Spanish-French announcement.
Ramoskiene said privately that the GOL would not want to
support a new initiative that excludes it, when it can
participate in the current process through EU structures.
CLOUD