FRANCE TO ROLL OUT NATO-EU IDEAS

C O N F I D E N T I A L USNATO 000506 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/19/2017 TAGS: NATO PREL FR SUBJECT: FRANCE TO ROLL OUT NATO-EU IDEAS REF: PARIS 3919 Classified By: AMB V. NULAND; REASONS 1.4 (B) and (D). ¶1. (C) Summary: France is set to roll out informal ideas on NATO-EU cooperation (reftel) at both the EU and NATO soon, per its NATO Ambassador. End Summary. ¶2. (C) French NATO Permanent Representative Richard Duque told the UK and German Perm Reps and the U.S. DCM on September 18 that France plans to circulate a non-paper with ideas on NATO-EU cooperation to be circulated at both the EU and NATO which would address the following main points: NATO steps: -- Use of the Trans-Atlantic meal format for Defense Ministers and Chiefs/Heads of Defense; -- EU Presidency efforts to make more of an effort to present its program to the North Atlantic Council (NAC); -- Provision of more frequent invitations for the NATO Secretary General (SYG) to attend the PSC and for EU High SIPDIS Representative Solana to attend QNAC; -- Look for ways to develop a relationship between the European Defense Agency (EDA) and Allied Command Transformation (ACTQ -- Encourage more information flow between the EU and NATO respective civilian crisis management organizations. EU steps: -- Associate non-EU European Allies (to include Turkey) with European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) activities; -- Build a relationship between the EDA and Turkey; -- Address the range of outstanding security agreement gaps (Turkey-EU and Cyprus/Malta-NATO); -- Consult with non-members before operations (NFI on link to contributions). 3.(C) AMB Duque also suggested that France is considering "something on exercises." 4.(C) DCM Olson noted the near-term EU Troika meeting with Turkey and said that it was encouraging. He said that more frequent such meetings would be a confidence-builder. 5.(C) AMB Nuland meets with Presidential Commission White Paper Dir. Jean-Claude Mallet on Sept. 20 and may glean further details about this effort. 6.(C) Comment: This development is very promising and reflects French digestion of some of our encouragement to Paris to think creatively about engaging Turkey to break the log jam in Turkey-EU relations to the broader benefit of NATO-EU synergy development. End Comment. NULAND