DUTCH ON U.S. INTEREST IN UNAIDS BOARD VICE-CHAIR

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 001104 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/UBI (RREITER) STATE ALSO FOR S/GAC (CMCIFF),IO/T (GROBERTSOF) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KHIV EAID TBIO PREL NL SUBJECT: DUTCH ON U.S. INTEREST IN UNAIDS BOARD VICE-CHAIR POSITION REF: STATE 71964 THIS MESSAGE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY. ¶1. (U) Econoff delivered reftel points June 5 to Henriette van Gulik at the UN Candidates Desk of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA),and June 6 to Siemon Tuinstra, MFA's Coordinator for Task Force AIDS and Reproductive Health. ¶2. (SBU) Van Gulik said the GONL were aware of USG interest in serving as Vice-Chair for the UNAIDS Program Coordinating Board (PCB) during World Health Organization meetings held the week of May 21 in Geneva . Van Gulik said that while the Dutch were also interested serving as Vice-Chair, the GONL had not yet made a decision. She acknowledged that the Netherlands was not currently a member of the Board, and therefore formally ineligible for the Vice-Chairmanship. Nevertheless, if the GONL decided to proceed, she said it would discuss its interest with Belgium, the current PCB Constituency Chair, and Luxembourg, the next Chair. Van Gulik noted Dutch HIV/AIDS Ambassador Paul Bekkers would attend the June 25-27 PCB meeting in Geneva. ¶3. (SBU) Tuinstra confirmed the GONL had not yet decided whether to run for PCB Vice-Chair. The Dutch have both financing and staff available, he said, but a final decision depended on which other countries were interested in the position. If the U.S. were to become Vice-Chair, Tuinstra predicted some "tension" between the outgoing Swedish Chair's focus on sexuality and the USG's emphasis on ABC strategies. He also questioned whether USG interest in the UNAIDS PCB Vice-Chair signaled a greater USG desire to work within the UN system as a whole. However, he added, this interest and the doubling of USG AIDS funding were positive signs that the U.S. wanted to play a visible role in the fight against the virus. ARNALL