SINGAPORE SUGGESTS CHANGES TO CHEMICAL WEAPONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SINGAPORE 001611 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/30/2017 TAGS: PARM PREL KTIA ETRD CWC SUBJECT: SINGAPORE SUGGESTS CHANGES TO CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION DRAFT MOU REF: A. STATE 45460 ¶B. 06 STATE 132152 Classified By: E/P Chief Ike Reed for reasons 1.4(b) and (d) (C) MFA's International Organizations Directorate provided us the non-paper in paragraph 2 August 29 in response to USG non-paper dated August 22, 2006 on the Proposed Memorandum of Understanding on the Conduct of Challenge Inspections under the Chemical Weapons Convention. (Note: We have substituted parentheses for square brackets due to formatting constraints. End note.) ¶2. (C) BEGIN TEXT OF NON-PAPER Confidential/Releasable to the US SIPDIS NON-PAPER The Government of Singapore (GOS) has reviewed the US Non-paper of 22 August 2006 on the Proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Conduct of Challenge Inspections under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The GOS appreciates the USG's efforts to accommodate Singapore's proposals. The GOS has some suggestions in response to the non-paper. It is hoped that the USG will accept these in service of concluding negotiations on the MOU. Singapore's comments on the outstanding points of the MOU are: PART II (Principles and Scope) 2) For clarity, the GOS would like to propose amendments (as indicated in square brackets below) to the first sentence of the existing text to read as follows: "(The principles and procedures in this Memorandum are based) on the principle of territorial sovereignty, which is one of the basic principles governing the Convention, and (are intended to) fulfill the (Participants' respective) obligations in the Convention as the designated inspected State Party or as the host state, as appropriate..." PART IV (Pre-inspection activities): 8e) the GOS would like to propose an amendment to the USG's suggested revision, as follows: "...the inspected State Party should nonetheless (strike defer) take into account the other Participant's concerns since the other Participant..." This brings in line the language of paragraph 8e) with that of paragraph 2c),which notes that "the inspected State Party...should take the lead on pre-inspection activities, taking into account the concerns of the other Participant." PART V (Conduct of perimeter and inspection activities) 1c) The GOS can accept the amended paragraph as proposed by the USG. 29 August 2007 END TEXT OF NON-PAPER Visit Embassy Singapore's Classified website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eap/singapore/ind ex.cfm SHIELDS