POLAND-OSCE: GOP REQUESTS U.S. SUPPORT FOR HCNM

C O N F I D E N T I A L WARSAW 000648 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/RPM AND EUR/NCE E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/07/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM OSCE PINR PL SUBJECT: POLAND-OSCE: GOP REQUESTS U.S. SUPPORT FOR HCNM CANDIDACY OF FORMER FM DANIEL ROTFELD Classified By: Political Counselor Mary T. Curtin, reasons 1.4(b) and ( d) ¶1. (C) MFA Security Policy Director Robert Kupiecki informed DCM on March 14 that Poland had formally nominated former Polish Foreign (Adam) Daniel Rotfeld to the position of OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities (HCNM). Noting Rotfeld's close association and cooperation with the U.S. from his appointment as MFA U/S in 2001 to his departure from government as Foreign Minister following the Fall 2005 parliamentary elections, Kupiecki asked DCM to convey to Department the GOP's formal request for U.S. support of the Rotfeld nomination. ¶2. (C) Throughout his tenure at MFA (starting in October 2001) and since, Daniel Rotfeld has been a very close friend of the Embassy and the USG and a strong advocate of Poland's active role as a U.S. ally - in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the world. As Under and then Deputy Minister, Rotfeld directly supervised the work of the Americas Department and Security Policy Department, and with former DepSec Armitage he chaired the first U.S.-Polish Strategic Dialogue in September 2004. Rotfeld's biography through 2005 can be found in the Poland Biographies section of Intellink Intellipedia. Since essentially retiring after his departure from the Foreign Ministry in 2005, Rotfeld has served on the boards of several think tanks and participates often and prominently in conferences and discussions of foreign policy, where he continues to publicly advocate strong trans-Atlantic ties and close support for the U.S. ASHE