AMB WOOD DISCUSSES EU,S WORK IN AFGHANISTAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRUSSELS 003037

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/FO, SCA/A, INL, INL/AP, EUR/ERA, USAID FOR
WARD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/30/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV EU EAID SNAR PTER
SUBJECT: AMB WOOD DISCUSSES EU,S WORK IN AFGHANISTAN

REF: BRUSSELS 2595

Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Laurence Wohlers for reason
s 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan William Wood
met with EU Council Secretariat and Commission officials
September 17 and 18 in Brussels to discuss U.S. and EU
efforts in Afghanistan. Topics included the EUPOL police
training mission, European Commission assistance programs,
and counternarcotics. Wood stressed the importance of the
EU,s efforts in all of these areas and encouraged EU
interlocutors to identify more areas where the EU could help.
He noted that many other countries would be encouraged to
step up to the plate in Afghanistan if they saw that the EU
was there. End Summary.

EUPOL
--------------


2. (C) Director General for External Political and Military
Affairs Robert Cooper and (separately) Deputy Director
General for ESDP Pieter Feith told Ambassador Wood they would
soon make public the name of the person replacing EU Police
Training Mission (EUPOL) commander Friedrich Eichele, Jurgen
Scholz. They described Scholz as experienced and competent
but with a tough personality and noted he would need to
control his temper. They stressed that they planned to spend
some time with Scholz before he went out to the field to make
sure he got started on the right foot and that they would
keep him on a short leash, insisting that he stick to the
mission, develop it, and move it into operational duty. Both
interlocutors asked that the USG maintain close contact with
Scholz once he assumed his new position, to ensure he was
well versed in USG policy and priorities. Wood assured them
that we would do so.


3. (C) Wood said that the USG is enthusiastic about police
reform, but noted the USG and the EU had slightly different,
but &complementary8 visions. Wood stressed that the short
term training and deployment of police was as important as
the long term development of the police and said it was
necessary to allocate resources appropriately to achieve the
right balance. He cautioned against training police to
operate in a judicial system that was not yet developed and
stressed instead the importance of having police who could
serve as mediators between traditional and modern justice
systems.


4. (C) Feith said he agreed with Wood on the importance of
both the short term and long term needs, but that what Wood
proposed would entail a change of mission statement and track
for EUPOL. He said his first priority was to salvage the
EUPOL force and get it back on track, stressing that it would
be extremely difficult at this point to ask Member States to
recalibrate EUPOL,s mission statement. He asked that the
USG first bear with him while he worked to get EUPOL back up
and running, with a commander who understood all of these
concerns and could discuss them with the USG. Once that was
in place, the EU could consider adjusting EUPOL,s mandate as
well as increasing its size. Wood assured Feith that we
support EUPOL completely and want to make it a success.


5. (C) Turning to the EU,s request for USG support for EUPOL
(reftel),Feith asked Wood whether there was a way to find a
practical work-around solution that would allow EUPOL to get
the support it needed. Wood replied that the USG was trying
hard to find a solution, that we know that it is critical and
urgent, and that we want to make it work.

Commission Assistance Programs
--------------


6. (C) Several European Commission (EC) officials handling
assistance for Afghanistan briefed Amb. Wood on their
programs. RELEX Head of Unit for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Helen Campbell said the EC was on track with funding, having
implemented the one billion euro Tokyo pledge and shielding
Afghanistan somewhat from the overall cuts in the EC,s
external relations budget. She also noted the EC had set
aside euros 10.6 million euros to fund Member States,
Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) activities, but that
Member States were slow to apply for the funding. Wood
suggested designating someone at the EC delegation in Kabul
to assist new Member States unfamiliar with programming for
development assistance seek out and apply for this kind of
funding. Campbell noted that with the new EC team in Kabul
it could be possible to have one of the staff members perform

BRUSSELS 00003037 002 OF 002


this role.

Counternarcotics
--------------


7. (C) Ambassador Wood also met with a group of Commission
and Council Secretariat Officials involved in coordinating EU
drug policies, including Council Secretariat Head of Unit for
Drugs Coordination Johannes Vos, Commission Head of Unit for
Drugs Coordination Carel Edwards, and Commission Afghanistan
Desk Officer Paul Turner. Ambassador Wood noted that the
United States will have spent over 2.2 billion U.S. dollars
by the end of 2007, including at least 400 million dollars in
Helmand Province alone. He lamented that drug production had
tripled during this same period. According to the empirical
evidence, &what we have been doing doesn,t work.8 While
some provinces had become free of drug cultivation, all
remained active in various aspects of the drug trade,
including processing and smuggling. According to UN figures,
90 percent of opium may be transformed into heroin before
departing Afghanistan.


8. (C) Edwards said he did not fully accept the figures used
in the report by United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime
(UNODC). He believed that most of the heroin remained in the
region, particularly Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran, for
local consumption. Heroin abuse had not become a greater
problem in Europe, where consumption remained level or
declined. The Commission and Member States were also
expending huge sums in Afghanistan. Turner noted the
Commission had spent one billion Euros thus far, with a major
component devoted to promoting alternative livelihoods. All
agreed that production had increased, even if they differed
with the specific figures. The main concern, Ambassador Wood
added, was that the growth of the drug trade threatened all
objectives in Afghanistan. Afghanistan and the international
community urgently needed short-term solutions that worked.


9. (C) Turner suggested more attention on arresting and
incarcerating major drug traffickers. Ambassador Wood
reiterated that, despite efforts at promoting arrests,
preventing planting, and targeting the drug trade, opium
cultivation had tripled during the past six years. The main
question was whether those with the strength to fight drug
cultivation were actually prepared to do so. Most possessing
this strength seemingly did not have their homes in
Afghanistan. No one in the country had effectively opposed
drug cultivation. Ambassador Wood said he did not advocate
eradication over other measures, but that this activity
needed to be part of the counter-drug response, along with
alternative livelihoods, interdiction, and good governance.
He noted that U.S. support to drug interdiction would be
increased this year. In response to a query on Afghan
willingness to allow ground-based spray eradication,
Ambassador Wood said President Karzai had agreed to it in
past years. The Vice President spoke out recently and
strongly in favor, and, reportedly, two Governors had
approached the Embassy to request aerial spray eradication.
To date, however, the international community had not yet
reached consensus on this issue. Ambassador Wood reiterated,
&what we have been doing has not worked.8


10. (U) This message has been cleared by Ambassador Wood.

GRAY
.