TONGA PLAYS "IRAQ" CARD RE VISA ISSUE: ACTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SUVA 000435

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/04/2017
TAGS: PREL CVIS PGOV MARR TN
SUBJECT: TONGA PLAYS "IRAQ" CARD RE VISA ISSUE: ACTION
REQUEST

REF: A. SUVA 349 (AND PREVIOUS)

B. USDAO SUVA 131933Z AUG 07

Classified By: Amb. Dinger. Sec. 1.4 (B,D).

Summary
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1. (C) The Tonga Government has reiterated, by dipnote, its
intense desire for the USG to find a way to provide visa
services in Tonga, rather than in Suva. The dipnote says,
absent progress on the visa issue, "the Tonga Government will
not be disposed to assisting the United States in the
military or other fields." Tonga Defense Service (TDS)
troops are about to enter Iraq on a second six-month
deployment, with plans for yet another six-month deployment
to follow. It is not clear if the King and TDS Commander,
who have driven the deployments, cleared on the dipnote's
threat. We have explained U.S. visa constraints repeatedly
to Tonga leaders. They respond that surely the superpower
can find a visa solution for Tonga. Tonga's Foreign
Secretary will visit Suva next week to discuss the issue

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again. We request any new ideas that we might offer to
address the visa issue and help reward Tonga for its PKO
efforts. High-level visitors to Tonga in the coming weeks
will need ammunition on the visa issue, as well. End summary.

Tonga threatens mil/mil relations over visa issue
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2. (U) Embassy Suva received on Sept. 6 Tonga Ministry of
Foreign Affairs dipnote F.2/36/3 dated 5 Sept. 07. The
substantive text reads:

...the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Va'inga Tone, would
like to call on H.E. Mr. Larry Dinger on Tuesday 11 September
2007 at the Embassy. Arrangement is now being made for the
Secretary to travel to Suva on 10 September 2007 and return

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on 12 or by 14 September 2007.

The purpose of the Secretary's visit is to personally bring
up to the attention of the Ambassador, yet again, the
priority and urgency with which the Tongan Government views
the exorbitant costs that Tongans have to pay to travel to
Fiji to apply for their U.S. visa. It may be recalled that,
for close to ten years now, this matter has been raised
numerous times by the Tonga Permanent Representative to the
United Nations in New York and by the Ministry in Nuku'alofa.
Sadly, however, no progress has been attained as yet. With
Tonga's assistance to the United States in Iraq, it is not
unrealistic for Tonga to ask for a quid pro quo from the
United States in terms of arriving at an easier and cost
effective way for Tongans who wish to apply for a U.S. visa.
The Tonga Government will not otherwise be disposed to
assisting the United States in the military and other fields.
The Hon. Minister for Foreign Affairs conveyed this in
strong terms to the Ambassador in a recent visit to Tonga;
and the Commander of the Tonga Defense Services has done
likewise to the U.S. Defense Attache. The United States must
seriously address the issue of visa application by Tongan
nationals, either through the establishment of a consulate in
Tonga in reciprocity to Tonga's consulate general in San
Francisco (not to mention Tonga's Embassy in New York); or by
more regular visits by the U.S. Consul to Tonga; or some
other mutually acceptable arrangements.

The Ministry kindly requests the assistance of the Embassy in
conveying the foregoing to the Ambassador and for seeking his
kind concurrence towards the Secretary's request to call on
him at a time convenient on 11 September 2007. The Ministry
kindly thanks the Embassy for the assistance granted...

Wishes and current realities
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3. (C) As related reftels, PM Sevele, Foreign/Defense
Minister Tu'a, and Tonga Defense Service (TDS) Commander
Uta'atu have made clear their frustration that the USG
requires Tonga citizens to travel to Suva for visa
adjudications. The round-trip airfare for such a trip is
currently US$513, and inevitably many applicants do not
qualify for visas. We have repeatedly conveyed sympathy for
the inconvenience, as we have explained the requirements of
U.S. law and regulation, which currently require visa
applicants to visit a U.S. embassy or consulate for
electronic fingerprinting at the same time as the visa
interview. Tonga leaders have proposed pre-screening in
Tonga to weed out poor cases, or having more frequent

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consular visits, or opening a consular agency or a consulate
or an embassy. We have explained that U.S. regulations do
not allow pre-screening; the electronic fingerprint machine
is not portable (yet),so more frequent consular visits will
not solve the visa-adjudication problem; a consular agency
could not do visas; and to date, the USG has calculated that
an embassy or consulate in Tonga is not financially feasible.


New technology?
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4. (C) The one possibility we have mentioned, after
consultation with CA, is that experiments are taking place to
make electronic fingerprinting portable. If that technology
could be made available to Embassy Suva along with necessary
additional resources (human and budgetary),the USG could
experiment with having a consular officer visit Tonga
periodically, perhaps one week a month, to do visa
adjudications. Many details of such a process remain
unclear; there would be resource implications; and the last
we heard CA was discouraging the thought that the portable
fingerprint technology might become available for Suva.
Note: while portable fingerprinting could allow visa
adjudication in Tonga, the problem of "bad cases" would
remain. In fact, we presume the visa refusal rate would
increase as people who cannot afford the airfare for a roll
of the dice in Suva would take the gamble at home.

Playing the Iraq quid pro quo
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5. (C) As expected, Tonga leaders have not appreciated the
USG's inability to respond positively. With Tonga's
difficult political decision this year to deploy TDS troops
for a second time to the Coalition of the Willing in Iraq,
Tonga leaders have taken a new approach. They have argued
with emotion that, at a time when others are withdrawing from
Iraq, Tonga is stepping up, reconfirming its commitment to
international peacekeeping. In return, in the Tonga view,
the technically proficient U.S. superpower surely can find a
way to adjudicate visas in Tonga. The new dipnote adds a
threat: absent resolution of the visa issue, "the Tonga
Government will not otherwise be disposed to assisting the
United States in the military and other fields."

Internal Tonga dynamics?
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6. (C) Sevele was very unenthusiastic about the TDS
re-deployment to Iraq, but the King and BG Uta'atu pressed
the issue and engineered a commitment to two new six-month
deployments. TDS troops are currently in Kuwait preparing
for the first one. We do not know yet if the new dipnote
received clearance from the Palace or from the TDS, but the
wording would seem to put back into doubt the second
six-month deployment. While it is possible, maybe even
likely, that the King and the General can keep the second
deployment on track, there is no doubt that the civilian
political leadership intends to utilize "Iraq" to the extent
possible to leverage a fresh USG look at, and they hope a
significant revision of, visa policy toward Tonga.

Comment
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7. (C) Embassy Suva provides excellent visa services within
our geographic constraint. However, there is no doubt the
current requirement for Tongans to travel to Suva at
considerable expense creates intense frustration in the
Tongan public, and with Tongan politicians. Thus, visa
policy is an impediment to U.S.-Tongan relations, at a point
when Tonga is putting its troops on the line in Iraq. We
would welcome new ideas for overcoming the problem. We
thought the portable fingerprint option could work, but now
hear not to get our hopes up. We are sketching a proposal to
create a consular agency in Tonga. That would not resolve
the visa problem; but it would add more visibility to our
ongoing Peace Corps presence in Tonga, and such an agency
might eventually house mobile visa processing if/when
technology and resources permit. We are open to other ideas.

Action request: any new talking points?
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8. (C) The Ambassador spoke with Foreign Secretary Tone today
(9/6),and they agreed to meet in Suva on Thurs, 9/13. Tone
acknowledged that the conversation will be a repeat, but he
clearly has instructions to raise Tonga's complaint yet again
and to receive a USG response. Please advise what new we can

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say, if anything. We note that high-level military and
civilian USG visitors are expected to travel to Tonga in the
next few weeks. They will need to be ready with talking
points.
DINGER