CZECHS AGREE WITH U.S. APPROACH TO CFE

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRAGUE 000644 SIPDIS SIPDIS USNATO (FOR LOOK AND LAURENDEAU),EUR/RPM, USOSCE, EUR FOR KURT VOLKER E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/05/2017 TAGS: KCFE NATO PARM PREL EZ RU SUBJECT: CZECHS AGREE WITH U.S. APPROACH TO CFE EXTRAORDINARY CONFERENCE PREPARATIONS REF: A. SECSTATE 77371 ¶B. EUR/RPM PETERSON 06/05 E-MAIL TO U.S. EMBASSIES IN NATO CAPITALS Classified By: Political Officer Brian Greaney for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Poloff delivered the authorized portions of Ref A demarche on June 6 to Veronika Smigolova, MFA Director for Security Policy. Smigolova, who will lead the Czech delegation to the June 12-15 CFE Extraordinary Conference, shared her fear that Allies could be faced with Russian tactics designed to ensure withdrawal from the CFE treaty. Smigolova believes that under such circumstances no amount of reasonableness or confidence-building measures from the Allies would be able to prevent a Russian exit. Smigolova agrees Russia has deliberately mixed elements of the CFE Treaty, the Adapted CFE Treaty, and other documents in order to manufacture false grievances. ¶2. (C) Smigolova said the Czechs have one redline: Russia must drop its claims that no Istanbul Commitments exist. She said the Czechs could be flexible on implementation timelines for the Commitments, but Russia must first accept the Commitments and commit to their implementation. She said the Czechs look forward to working with the U.S. on a common NATO position and would welcome a draft text when it is ready. Smigolova predicted that Germany would be a stumbling block. The Germans, she said, still like to try to bridge tensions between Europe and Moscow, while ignoring the legitimate security fears of allied countries bordering Russia. GRABER