BLUE LANTERN: POSSIBLE TRANSFER OF U.S.-ORIGIN

S E C R E T KUWAIT 000577 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS STATE FOR PM/DTCC - BLUE LANTERN COORDINATOR, NEA/ARP E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/17/2017 TAGS: ETTC KOMC KU SUBJECT: BLUE LANTERN: POSSIBLE TRANSFER OF U.S.-ORIGIN TECHNOLOGY FROM KUWAIT TO CHINA REF: A. STATE 1607 ¶B. KUWAIT 157 ¶C. LENDERKING-ROMERO EMAILS Classified By: Economic Counselor Timothy Lenderking for reasons 1.4 (b ) and (d) ¶1. (S/NF) Following the delivery of diplomatic notes on 8 January and 4 April and several calls to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Refs B and C),Post obtained a meeting on this issue with the Foreign Procurement Division of the Ministry of Defense on 18 April. Econoff met with Assistant Director of Foreign Military Sales Colonel Haider Abdullatif and Military Contracts Follow-up Section Head Lieutenant Abdullah Salem Al-Sabah to deliver Ref A talking points. Colonel Haider replied that the Ministry takes this matter very seriously and promised to initiate a thorough investigation. He was unwilling to speculate as to how long the investigation might take, but agreed to keep Econoff up-to-date on its progress. Colonel Haider emphasized that the Ministry wanted to take every measure to protect its close relationship with the United States and would take whatever actions were necessary based on the outcome of its investigation. ********************************************* * For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s Visit Kuwait's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ ********************************************* * Tueller