GREECE RELUCTANTLY ACQUIESCES TO CWC MEETING IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 000453 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT ALSO FOR EUR/SE, EUR/PRA, AND ISN/CB E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/26/2018 TAGS: PGOV PARM PREL KTIA CWC GR SUBJECT: GREECE RELUCTANTLY ACQUIESCES TO CWC MEETING IN THE HAGUE REF: A. STATE 29626 ¶B. 05 ¶C. 07 STATE 13427Q02155 Classified By ff Hovenier for reason3 (C) A/Political CounsQdemarche and talking poi`ssador Rallis, the Direct`ctorate for the UN andions and Conferences and Non-Proliferation. Ambassador Rallis was joined by D1 non-proliferation Chief Dionyssios Kyvetos. While Rallis and Kyvetos recognized U.S. frustrations regarding lack of progress, they claimed that the draft Host Country Agreement (HCA) remains with the MFA Legal Department and is out of their hands. A/PolCouns noted that the Legal Department first received a copy of the draft HCA text in 2005; ample time to render a legal opinion. PolCouns also reminded his interlocutors that he had delivered a copy of the U.S-Italy bilateral HCA to the MFA in November 2007. He then pressed his counterparts for a positive response on the request for a meeting with U.S. Chemical Weapons Convention experts on the margins of the April 8-17 REVCON in The Hague. ¶2. (C) Rallis and Kyvetos were initially reluctant to agree to an expert-level meeting, claiming that the Greek delegation will not be prepared to address substantive issues at the expert level given that the Greek "technical expert" is actually an academic temporarily filling a vacant position, and the Head of Delegation will be the bilateral Greek Ambassador in The Hague. A/PolCouns then suggested that Greek delegates meet the U.S. experts if only to "hear us out." After much discussion, Rallis and his staff agreed that a meeting between the U.S. experts and the Greek technical expert, Professor Ioannis Seimenis, might prove a useful catalyst to jump-start the perennially stalled negotiations. A/PolCouns indicated that it would likely be useful to have the Head of Delegation present during HCA discussions and Rallis agreed to gauge whether or not his presence would be deemed appropriate. Post will follow-up and report final decisions. ¶3. (C) Comment: Although the Greeks have now agreed to meet with us on the margins of the REVCON, but we doubt that they will be in a position to offer substantive comments on our draft HCA. This meeting is a good opportunity to impress on the Greek side the urgency of moving this issue forward. We will also continue to press it at the senior levels of the MFA. End Comment. SPECKHARD