CFE: TURKEY WANTS NO MENTION OF FLANKS IN NATO

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 000565 SIPDIS SIPDIS USNATO PLEASE PASS TO DAS KARIN LOOK E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/25/2018 TAGS: PREL RS NATO KCFE MARR GG MD TU SUBJECT: CFE: TURKEY WANTS NO MENTION OF FLANKS IN NATO STATEMENT ON CFE REF: STATE 30484 Classified By: POLITICAL-MILITARY COUNSELOR CARL SIEBENTRITT FOR REASON S 1.4 (B,D). ¶1. (C) We queried MFA Arms Control Deputy Director General Ahmet Gun March 25 on MFA reactions to the proposed NATO statement on CFE (reftel). Gun said he had examined the statement and consulted with senior MFA officials, who agreed that Turkey strongly opposes any reference to "flank limits" or "flank regime" in the text of the statement. In the MFA's view, the current language under the heading "Once the Adapted Treaty is in Force" is even stronger in regard to citing the flank regime than US-bracketed language in the parallel actions plan. Turkey would much prefer language from the Vienna conference, where the flank regime is not mentioned. ¶2. (C) Gun said that Turkey has no problem with the remainder of the text and fully supports the issuance of a NATO statement on CFE in advance of the Bucharest Summit. Gun looks forward to discussing Turkish concerns with DAS Look and others at the HLTF meeting. ¶3. (C) We subsequently briefed the German embassy here on our discussion with Gun. The Germans told us they were preparing to approach the MFA and seek support for the draft statement. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey WILSON