SOLANA TELLS BAN EU WILL MAKE STRONG POLITICAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 001093 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/29/2017 TAGS: PREL UNSC KV YI UNMIK SUBJECT: SOLANA TELLS BAN EU WILL MAKE STRONG POLITICAL STATEMENT ON KOSOVO Classified By: Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) On November 28, Ambassador Khalilzad met with the EU's Javier Solana to discuss Kosovo. Solana reported that he had met earlier in the day with SYG Ban Ki-Moon to tell him that when the EU holds its summit on December 14, he will push for a strong political statement that "the EU is ready to deploy its presences." Solana explained he was not certain of the final wording, but that he thinks the EU will succeed in producing a constructive statement. ¶2. (C) Solana noted that Ban had his staff with him at their meeting and perhaps because of this did not give a clear reaction to Solana's positive message. Solana said that he was pessimistic that we could expect a helpful statement from Ban after December 10, adding that Russian FM Lavrov had warned Solana in Annapolis not to attempt to influence the Secretary-General. Ambassador Khalilzad responded that a SIPDIS proactive statement coming out of the EU's December 14 summit would be very useful. Khalilzad