THIRD FORUM FOR THE FUTURE PLANNING MEETING

UNCLAS SANAA 002090 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS NEA/ARP FOR NATASHA FRANCESCHI; NEA/PI FOR BLAKE THORKELSON E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PGOV KMPI YM SUBJECT: THIRD FORUM FOR THE FUTURE PLANNING MEETING SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. Yemeni Prime Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohy Al-Dhabbi and German Ambassador to Yemen Michael Klor-Berchtold co-chaired the third Forum for the Future planning meeting in Sanaa on October 27. NEA DAS Kent Patton, DRL DAS Erica Barks-Ruggles, NEA Foreign Affairs Officer Blake Thorkelson, and Embassy Sanaa APAO Megan Goodfellow participated. Discussion focused on Forum logistics and agenda, the parallel civil society forum, the senior officials meeting, a potential BMENA secretariat, and a potential conflict with the Forum dates. LOGISTICS -------------- ¶2. Yemeni Chief of Protocol Ambassador Ibrahim Saeed Al-Adoofi discussed logistical arrangements for the Forum. Each delegation will have seven seats (principle six). All heads of delegation will be housed in the Movenpick. Al-Dhabbi agreed to recommendations from Bahrain and the US that civil society representatives be more integrated with governments, and not marginalized in the main hall. OCTOBER 23 FORUM SUBMINISTERIAL -------------- ¶3. Participants reviewed the German summary of the October 23 Forum subministerial in Berlin. Moroccan BMENA coordinator Ambassador Youssef Amrani said that the event fostered good dialogue with civil society and noted the calls for a regional gender institute and a Helsinki-like process in the Middle East. Egyptian BMENA Coordinator Ambassador Raouf Saad complained that NGO interventions had "overwhelmed" government delegates and called for a balance among governments and NGOs at the Forum. Saad said that the Helsinki proposal reflected a lack of information and claimed that Italy and Russia had said that Helsinki was not a simple model that could be applied to the Middle East. DAS Patton said that the Helsinki analogy cannot be too strict, but that the spirit of Helsinki is a pragmatic partnership with civil society. Turkish Policy Planning Section Chief Timur Soylemez said it is time to put the theory of women's empowerment into practice with a gender institute. Al-Dhabbi asked for a full proposal to which to react. CIVIL SOCIETY PARALLEL FORUM -------------- ¶4. Ezzedine Al-Asbahy of Yemen's Human Rights Information and Training Center (HRITC) discussed the 220-person Parallel ;Civil Society Forum to be held in Aden November 30-December 1 (Note: The location of the Parallel Forum has since been changed to Sana'a. End Note). He said pointedly that the only funding for the meeting has come from the State Department and asked for other donors to provide more funding. In preparing, HRITC has developed a regional and local preparatory committee. The parallel meeting will issue a report at the Forum on the state of democracy in the region, focused on freedom of expression and the legal environment for NGOs. HRITC has sent questionnaires to NGOs in all BMENA countries to assist in the preparation of the report. The parallel meeting will include thematic workshops that will develop workplans. HRITC wants ministers to endorse the workplans at the Forum and to fund them. Progress would be assessed at the 2008 Forum. He called for a permanent working mechanism to support the Parallel Forum's work. ¶5. Raouf Saad of Egypt said he wanted to "correct" Al-Asbahy, that action plans should not be presented by NGOs and adopted by governments. That is not a real partnership, he said. Governments and NGOs may not see eye to eye, but they need to agree on a common purpose and cooperate without recrimination. Amrani welcomed strong civil society participation and called for credible, representative NGOs to participate in the Forum. He said that the reports are a good idea but asked the civil society groups to avoid confrontation. Bahraini Director of Bilateral Relations Dr. Dhafer Al-Umran said that the democracy report should be regionally focused, not country-specific. The Parallel Forum themes should complement, not duplicate, the Forum agenda, and should include more than just political issues. Yemeni DFM Al-Dhabbi recommended that the meeting be held a few days earlier to give governments more time to review the report. He also said that the number of civil society representatives in the Forum would be the same as in Jordan, plus one. Al-Asbahy agreed that the report would not be negative, but would propose workplans with specific policy recommendations to be implemented. He said that the dates could not be moved because HRITC did not have the funding to pay for the additional hotel nights for the delegation before the Forum. AGENDA -------------- ¶6. Yemen circulated three versions of the agenda, from the US, Germany, and Yemen, which caused some confusion among the delegations. Participants agreed that although education is an important theme of this year's Forum, it would be impossible to include Ministers of Education in the Forum. They also agreed that Foreign Ministers should sign up for speaking slots in advance. Timur Soylemez of Turkey called for inclusion of the theme of women's empowerment. Egypt recommended a panel discussion followed by interaction with the audience. Al-Dhabbi concluded that during the democracy session, Germany will deliver a readout of the Berlin subministerial and the Civil Society Parallel Forum will make a presentation, followed by discussion. In the education session, Germany and Oman will deliver a readout of the BMENA Education Ministerial, followed by discussion. The UK and DAS Patton emphasized that Foundation for the Future chair Anwar Ibrahim and Mohammed bin Rachid Foundation chair Mohammed bin Rachid al-Gergawi should make short presentations of issues to be considered in the democracy and education sessions, respectively. Yemen will circulate a new version of the agenda for comment in November, and will finalize the agenda by November 20. Participants also agreed that Yemen will draft a chair's summary to be issued at the end of the Forum. SENIOR OFFICIALS MEETING -------------- ¶7. Participants agreed that the December 4 senior officials meeting will discuss issues in more detail. Yemen will circulate all papers in advance, although it might be late in circulating the parallel forum's papers given the date of that event. Al-Dhabbi said that civil society representatives will be included in the senior officials meeting but implied that they would be restricted to a handful. (Note: NEA followed up later with MFA to stress that in past Forums, all civil society representatives participated in the senior officials meeting. End Note). Egypt agreed that the NGOs should be there to discuss the NGO principles circulated at the Berlin subministerial. Turkey said that the senior officials should consider the NGO principles. DAS Patton said that presentations on BMENA initiative also should be made. Japanese Deputy DG for Middle East Shinsuke Sugiyama and Moroccan Director of Bilateral Affairs Youssef Amrani said that the senior officials need to be able to exchange views, but should not negotiate. BMENA SECRETARIAT -------------- ¶8. Bahraini Director of Bilateral Relations Dhafer Al-Umran raised a potential mechanism for following up on commitments to civil society at BMENA meetings. He asked that a G8 government to create a website that other participants could contribute to. DAS Patton, Sugiyama, and Amrani supported a virtual information center/secretariat. Al-Dhabbi said that while Yemen had originally proposed a secretariat office, a virtual secretariat would not conflict with Yemen's proposal. Raouf Saad of Egypt said that he agreed with the proposal in principle. SELECTION OF FUTURE FORUM HOSTS -------------- ¶9. Dhafer said that Japan needs to know who its co-host will be for the 2008 Forum, noting that Qatar and the UAE had offered. Sugiyama replied that it is up to BMENA countries to select the co-host, but he was hopeful that Japan would be able to announce its partner in December. Japan does not want to go through a difficult or clumsy process. Sugiyama said he would talk to Al-Dhabbi about the selection. Al-Dhabbi proposed and DAS Patton agreed that Yemen, Germany, and Japan should make the final decision after interested hosts had made their case. Dhafer suggested Turkey could host, but Soylemez said that Turkey prefers that the host remains a country in the Broader Middle East. Saad said the selection process should not be ad hoc in future years. Sugiyama agreed. CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCELLENCE IN BAHRAIN -------------- --- ¶10. Dhafer said that BMENA needs a success story. He did not intend to "tell the G8 what to do," but it would be unpleasant if Bahrain had to announce at the Forum that its Entrepreneurship Center had closed for lack of G8 funding. He appreciated US. and UK support and for talking to other G8 members, and said that he would keep the Center open until December. Sugiyama noted that Japan has contributed $10 million to the regional IFC facility, and Japan will talk to the IFC to see how it can support the Center. FORUM DATES -------------- ¶11. Before ending the meeting, the German Ambassador said that his government had received with surprise just two days earlier an invitation for an EU-Africa ministerial in Sharm el-Sheikh on the same dates as the Forum. He noted that Forum invitations had been sent on September 5. Asked to explain, Raouf Saad said that Egypt believed the Forum had been postponed until January and that the December dates would be free. He said that the Sharm dates were now fixed and that some ministers, including FM Aboul Gheit, would not be able to attend the Forum unless it was postponed two or three days. DAS Patton noted that the Secretary and some other G8 ministers are committed to the NATO ministerial on December 6 but will be in Sanaa for a successful forum on December 4-5. He suggested that Germany approach the EU and others approach Egypt to see if the Sharm dates could be moved. Dhafer Al-Umran of Bahrain stressed that the Forum dates have been discussed at all three planning meetings and fixed on calendars months ago. He noted the IISS conference in Bahrain right after the Forum and said that a conflict with an EU event would look bad. Sugiyama and Al-Dhabbi said that it had never been decided to postpone the Forum, only discussed in case the Gulf Cooperation Council summit were to conflict. Amrani, who was not previously aware of dates of the EU-Africa ministerial, said that it is an important meeting for the EU. Al-Dhabbi said that changing the Forum dates was not up for discussion and asked Egypt to clarify the situation as soon as possible. Germany promised to do its utmost in the EU but noted that the Sharm invitation was issued by Egypt, not the EU. SECHE