Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07THEHAGUE1713
2007-09-18 14:00:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy The Hague
Cable title:  

CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): WRAP-UP FOR THE

Tags:  PARM PREL CWC 
pdf how-to read a cable
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UNCLAS THE HAGUE 001713 

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STATE FOR ISN/CB, VCI/CCB, L/ACV, IO/S
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COMMERCE FOR BIS (GOLDMAN)
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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PARM PREL CWC
SUBJECT: CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): WRAP-UP FOR THE
WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 14, 2007

This is CWC-77-07.

------------------------------
SCENESETTER FOR EC 50: DEJA VU
------------------------------

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 001713

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR ISN/CB, VCI/CCB, L/ACV, IO/S
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISP
JOINT STAFF FOR DD PMA-A FOR WTC
COMMERCE FOR BIS (GOLDMAN)
NSC FOR LEDDY
WINPAC FOR WALTER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PARM PREL CWC
SUBJECT: CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): WRAP-UP FOR THE
WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 14, 2007

This is CWC-77-07.

--------------
SCENESETTER FOR EC 50: DEJA VU
--------------


1. (SBU) There has been a certain malaise since delegations
returned from summer holidays, with widespread acceptance of
the view that there will need to be a special session of the
Executive Council during the Conference of States Parties to
pass the budget and perhaps other agenda items. Alexander
Khodakov (Secretary to the Policy Making Organs) even
described the special EC sessions during the CSP as
now-normal procedure in his presentation to new delegates at
the OPCW Induction (Orientation) session September 12. WEOG
discussion on September 11 assumed a special session would be
necessary, until budget co-facilitator Diana Gosens of the
Netherlands asserted that they were trying very hard to
complete the budget on schedule.


2. (SBU) Iran and the NAM are raising issues in several
different consultations that indicate plans to disrupt EC
decisions, or perhaps hold some agenda items up unless
favored programs move forward (such as an action plan for
Article XI). The NAM as a body continues to work actively,
and not just behind the scenes, as evidenced by an EC agenda
item referencing the Cuban request on behalf of the NAM to
discuss the DG,s proposal on OCPF site selection. WEOG is
working through its coordinator to remove this reference, and
raise awareness of the precedent being avoided by doing so.


3. (U) The reduction in destruction inspection estimates for
the U.S. and Russia has opened a new but shop-worn point of
contention over how to re-allocate the money saved from those
inspections, with WEOG members arguing for more Article VI
(OCPF) inspections and China and NAM members calling for
increased international (ICA) assistance (more detail below).
Russia has also indicated its intent to block any U.S.
documents on the agenda, pending approval of its Maradykovsky
Facility Agreement and Verification Plan.


4. (U) Del is working to encourage constructive participation
at the EC to complete work that can be completed, to save
precious debate time for important issues to be resolved.



--------------
NEW WEOG COORDINATOR
--------------


5. (U) Over the summer, the Irish delegation solicited
nominations on behalf of the WEOG for a new coordinator, as
outgoing chair Christer Ahlstrom (Sweden) has assumed new
bilateral duties and can no longer coordinate the regional
group. Annie Mari (France),the sole candidate, was
unanimously elected at the first WEOG meeting of the fall and
chaired her first WEOG session on September 11. She will
chair an expanded WEOG meeting, including eastern European,
Japanese and South Korean delegates on September 20, to
discuss issues of common interest for the upcoming Executive
Council.

--------------
DUTCH CHALLENGE INSPECTION EXERCISE
--------------


6. (U) In addition to U.S. representative Don Clagett, who
participated in the observer program for the exercise
September 10-14, the delegation also attended a more limited
program of briefings, updates and a site tour of the DSM
industrial facility in Delft. Participation was notable;
much of the Executive Council was represented, which Dutch
perm rep Amb. Maarten Lak hopes will begin to build support
for upcoming discussions of the EC role in a challenge
inspection. The visitor program was comprehensive, and
enabled delegations not familiar with challenge inspection
procedures to gain an understanding of the timeline,
interactions between inspection team and inspected state

party, and the roles of various parties involved. The final
day,s events included a question and answer period.
Unfortunately, this session was used by NAM States Parties to
highlight their concerns with the political nature of
challenge inspections, the possibility of abuse, and to take
the Dutch to task for not ensuring wide regional
representation in their observer (as opposed to visitor)
program.

--------------
AMMAN WORKSHOP
--------------


7. (SBU) Del rep confirmed with OPCW Director of Verification
Horst Reeps that the TS can support either of the two weeks
proposed by the U.S. for a follow-up workshop to finalize the
Iraqi initial declaration, as can the UK. Japanese
colleagues have expressed interest in taking a more active
role in the workshop this time; del has recommended Japan
coordinate with Reeps on whether additional expertise is
required. Del will continue to work with the TS and UK to
establish a date for the invitation to Iraqi officials and
follow up with Washington to ascertain the availability of
key Iraqis for the date selected. Del will continue to
encourage prompt, coordinated action on the part of the TS to
ensure that the upcoming workshop is constructive and geared
toward completion of the draft declaration.

--------------
EC VISIT PLANNING
--------------


8. (U) Del rep met with delegations of States Parties
involved in the upcoming EC visit to Anniston. Del rep
briefed delegation on the status of preparations to date
(flight/hotel reservations),reminded participants of their
individual obligations for flight arrangements and visas, and
assessed progress being made. TS Chemical Demilitarization
Branch officer Gabi Coman-Enescu provided additional
information to assist with planning, and has offered to brief
the visiting delegation on the facility layout and basic
operations and terminology prior to the visit. Delegations,
concerns so far seem largely administrative, with the
exception of the Irish delegation, who recommended in WEOG
several weeks ago that the WEOG provide input to its regional
representative on the visit to ensure its concerns and/or
areas of special interest were addressed. The UK delegation
followed up with a list of technical questions on Anniston,
which have been forwarded to Washington. Del expects that as
the visit draws closer, regional groups may become more
engaged, and will report any developments to Washington.

--------------
ARTICLE VII
--------------


9. (U) On September 13, Kimmo Laukkanen (Finland) chaired a
meeting on Article VII. Amb. Onate (TS Legal Adviser)
presented the latest report on the status of implementation
of Article VII (EC-50/DG.10, dated 7 September 2007). He
also highlighted a few new items that will be dealt with in a
corrigendum before the start of the Executive Council,
including: Cambodia has established its National Authority;
Kiribati and Qatar have submitted legislation to their
parliamentary bodies; and Sri Lanka has submitted new
legislative elements in a hope to make their legislation
comprehensive. Except for clarifying questions, there was no
discussion from delegations. Because of this, the
facilitator decided that delegations needed more time to
review the report and intends to hold another meeting on
September 17. Korea made the only substantive comment,
expressing serious concern for those States Parties who have
not submitted initial declarations. Amb. Onate echoed these
concerns and discussed how simple the process for initial
declarations is for non-possessor states.

--------------
ARTICLE XI

--------------


10. (U) On September 12, Li Hong (China) chaired his second
consultation on the topic of Article XI. Iran and others
were quick to raise the idea of an action plan for Article
XI. Others, like Mexico (who was a co-facilitator for
drafting the decision taken at CSP-10 (C-10/DEC.14, dated 11
November 2005)) stopped short of calling for an action plan
but clearly indicated that action was needed and that the
previous decision fell short of completeness because of
compromise. Perhaps knowing how unpopular an action plan is,
Iran proposed that a decision be taken at CSP-12 to follow-up
on and that the elements of the action plan could be laid out
later. Many delegations expressed their objection and strong
concern about such a plan, asking how it was different from
C-10/DEC.14. Australia proposed that the upcoming Review
Conference (RevCon) be used as a platform to discuss progress
from C-10/Dec.14 and whether an action plan was warranted,
noting that this led to successful results for Article VII
and universality coming out of the First RevCon. Korea
questioned the utility of an action plan for Article XI,
noting that there were no easily quantifiable goals as there
were for Article VII and universality. Despite the
objections, the Chinese facilitator committed to bilaterally
float whatever decision text any delegation (i.e., Iran)
might forward him. Del rep asked the procedural question
about how such a decision could be achieved at the CSP, given
that the EC is just two weeks away and EC approval is
necessary before going to the CSP. To this, the Iranian
delegate pointed out that a special session of the EC could
be called on the margins of the CSP to tidy all of this up.


11. (U) There was also some discussion about the
international cooperation and assistance (ICA) work carried
out by the TS and various States Parties. South Africa and
others asked how we could better measure the effectiveness of
these efforts so that they can be improved over time.


12. (U) In an interesting exchange near the end of the
meeting, Cuba made an impassioned plea for moving this work
forward, particularly given the delay in getting started. A
few minutes later, Cuba took the floor again and read a
statement on behalf of the NAM that was fairly general but
called for an action plan, in light of the success of such
action plans for Article VII and universality. The Tunisian
delegate intervened shortly thereafter and reminded the group
that an action plan could not be launched without consensus
of the entire group, &including all NAM States Parties.8
Clearly, she was not consulted about the NAM statement that
Cuba read, and she was angry. In fact, an exercised
discussion amongst NAM delegates continued after the close of
the meeting.

--------------
FREQUENCY OF INSPECTIONS
--------------


13. (U) On September 13, Amb. Dastis (Spain) held a
consultation on the topic of risk assessment and frequency of
inspection. The Director General first took the floor to
apologize for problems that occurred, preventing complete
distribution of the TS papers of 25 and 28 May 2007. Bill
Kane (Head, IVB) gave a very thorough overview of these two
documents. Because of the lack of preparation time for some
delegations, Amb. Dastis announced that another meeting would
be held on September 21.

--------------
INDUSTRY CLUSTER ) LATE DECLARATIONS
--------------


14. (U) On September 11, del rep (Larry Denyer) chaired a
consultation on the topic of &late declarations.8 The
focus of the meeting was new draft decision text that was
produced with the assistance of the Canadian and Mexican
delegations. Nearly all of the delegations who spoke were in
favor of this &rather modest8 compromise text, despite
their early preference for annual nil declarations.



15. (U) Although acknowledging that this text moved in the
right direction, Iran still had concerns about the
significance of the initial declarations problem, any call
for &deadlines,8 how to target those whose delay is the
most significant, etc. This resulted in another statement
from Russia about those States Parties who are in violation
of the treaty and how this could be dealt with.


16. (SBU) The South African delegate told del rep in advance
of this meeting that he expected at least one delegation to
purposely slow down progress on this decision as a means to
larger gains. In del rep,s estimation, Iran is working to
hold this decision, together with the budget and other
valuable decisions, as bargaining leverage for an Article XI
decision calling for an action plan.


17. (U) Given the ongoing dynamics, del will continue to work
with interested delegations to see if a way forward can be
identified.

--------------
2008 BUDGET CONSULTATIONS ) ICA
--------------


18. (U) On September 12, Diana Gosens (Netherlands) chaired
the third consultation on the DG,s Draft Programme and
Budget for 2008. The topic for the discussion was Programme
3 (International Cooperation and Assistance). Several
questions were raised, some in great detail. South Africa
and others expressed concern about the inclusion of two legal
officers (LAO staff) in this budget program and how that
might indicate adequate (and even increasing) funding to this
program, when in fact it is not directed at areas under
Articles X and XI. The DDG was quick to state that this was
a management call, as these lawyers are working exclusively
on Article VII implementation. China was the first to say
that perhaps some Articles need not always be a priority
(meaning Article VII). South Africa also asked for more
detail on the break-out of several line items (e.g., research
projects, support for National Authorities),presumably as a
vehicle to measuring progress and quality of these programs.

--------------
2008 BUDGET CONSULTATIONS ) OTHER ISSUES
--------------


19. (U) Following the brief consultation on the External
Relations Division on September 14, the DDG reported on the
budgetary impact of U.S. and Russian reductions in
inspections, estimating that EUR 570,000 would be available
for other purposes, if the present ZNG budget is maintained.
He presented four proposals for possible reallocation of the
funds within Chapter 1 of the budget, including (a) increased
sampling analysis, (b) increased training for inspectors, (c)
increased Article VI inspections by 10 for a total of 210, or
(d) purchase of additional inspection equipment. After the
TS asked for informal reactions, the debate demarcated

SIPDIS
clearly between WEOG delegations supporting increased
inspections, particularly of OCPFs, and the Chinese and NAM
delegations rejecting any increase in inspections, preferring
the money go to increased ICA efforts.


20. (U) The DG is expected to release a revised budget
proposal by September 19.

JAVITS SENDS.
Arnall