SPAIN ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS/LIMA TEXT

UNCLAS MADRID 000976 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR PA/WRA (KATHERINE BAKER) AND EUR/WE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: MOPS NATO PARM PREL SP SUBJECT: SPAIN ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS/LIMA TEXT REF: SECSTATE 66596 ¶1. (SBU) ESTHOFF and POLOFF made reftel points May 18 to MFA Disarmament Affairs Deputy Director General Ignacio Sanchez and MFA Counselor for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Carlos Torres, urging Spain to support U.S. positions as the international community charts the future of the Oslo Process to regulate cluster munitions. Sanchez said that Spain would attend the May 24-25 Lima meeting and indicated that the Spanish delegation would be led by his direct superior, Terrorism, Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Affairs Director General (A/S equivalent) Angel Lossada. ¶2. (SBU) Sanchez suggested that different opinions still existed inside MFA and between MFA and MOD regarding the Oslo Process. A final MFA-MOD coordination meeting would take place May 21, but Sanchez was nonetheless confident that he could predict the outlines of the Spanish position going into the Lima meeting. Sanchez said that Spain continued to oppose a total ban on cluster munitions and thus had substantial problems with Norway's draft discussion text. Spain, which produces and deploys cluster munitions, believes that its domestically-produced cluster munitions are modern and relatively safe and thus should not be banned. ¶3. (SBU) Sanchez also reiterated that Spain continues to believe that the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) remains the ideal venue to address the cluster munitions issue. However, Spain recognizes that the pressure induced via the Oslo Process helps ensure that the CCW remains focused on the cluster munitions issue. In this regard, Sanchez continued, Spain supports the cluster munitions text that Germany recently tabled at the CCW. LLORENS