SPANISH BACKTRACK ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 000402 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/WE AND PM/WRA (KATHERINE BAKER) E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2017 TAGS: MOPS PARM PREL NATO SP SUBJECT: SPANISH BACKTRACK ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS REF: A. MADRID 134 ¶B. STATE 6667 Classified By: DCM HUGO LLORENS PER 1.4 (B/D) ¶1. (C) During a March 2 meeting scheduled to discuss other disarmament-related issues, MFA Disarmament Affairs Deputy Director General Ignacio Sanchez sheepishly informed ESTHOFF that the information he had provided on January 24 regarding Spanish policy on cluster munitions (REF A) had been inaccurate. REF A reported that Spain had not been invited to the February 22-23 Oslo Cluster Munitions Conference, that Spain would probably not attend even if invited, and that Spain opposed a ban on the use of cluster munitions. ¶2. (C) Sanchez explained that Spain was eventually invited to attend the Oslo conference and did indeed decide not to attend. But then, just days before the conference, while Sanchez was out of Madrid on official travel, an unidentified NGO succeeded in convincing Deputy Foreign Minister Bernadino Lean and Sanchez's boss, Disarmament and Terrorism Affairs Director General Angel Lossada, that Lossada should attend the Oslo conference after all. At Oslo, according to Sanchez, Lossada agreed that Spain would support a ban on some of the "dirtiest" or "worst" kinds of cluster munitions. ¶3. (C) ESTHOFF probed as to whether Spain now supported an Ottawa type negotiation to ban certain types of cluster munitions or preferred to see the talks remain in the context of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). Sanchez said this remains under debate inside the Spanish Government. He believed that if the CCW process did not show movement in the upcoming months, Spain might then support an Ottawa style negotiation. ¶4. (C) COMMENT: Previous conversations with Sanchez had revealed a split between his views and those of DG Lossada. Sanchez, the technical expert, is more supportive of the U.S. position on cluster munitions. His views appeared to prevail until the Spanish NGO community succeeded in raising the profile of this issue. Now that his more PR-minded superiors are engaged, we expect Spain to be more supportive of efforts to ban or curb the use of cluster munitions. AGUIRRE