BRUNEI SEEKS MEASURED ENHANCEMENT OF DEFENSE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 000173

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS
SINGAPORE FOR DAO
DEFENSE FOR OSD/POLICY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/30/2018
TAGS: PREL MARR BX
SUBJECT: BRUNEI SEEKS MEASURED ENHANCEMENT OF DEFENSE
RELATIONSHIP

REF: A. BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 131

B. BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 156

Classified By: CDA Justin Friedman, reasons 1.4 (b) & (d)

--------------
SUMMARY
--------------


1. (C) At Ambassador Skodon's final farewell call, Deputy
Minister of Defense Pehin Yasmin Umar suggested some targets
for enhancing the bilateral defense relationship to go along
with the growing mil-mil relationship as the Government of
Brunei (GoB) signaled in reftels, including: signing an
Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA),posting a
Defense Attache in Washington, DC by 2010, and finding a U.S.
think tank to partner with the Ministry of Defense's own
think tank. He also will ask for follow on support to help
his Ministry make better use of the Force Oriented Cost
Information System (FOCIS) provided by the USG. Yasmin also
told us that Brunei was negotiating a status of forces
agreement with the Philippines, in part to allow Brunei to
operate independently from other monitoring teams should the
Malaysians pull out of the Mindanao monitoring mission. END
SUMMARY.

--------------
NEXT STEPS IN DEFENSE COOPERATION
--------------


2. (C) Deputy Minister of Defense Pehin Yasmin Umar and
Chief of Defense Pehin Major General Halbi hosted the
Ambassador, DCM (now Charge) and Pol/Mil Assistant at a
farewell lunch May 20. Yasmin told us that the GoB legal
review of the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement
(ACSA) was nearly completed and responded positively when the
Ambassador suggested that Pehin Halbi and Admiral Keating
could target signing the ACSA at their next meeting. Yasmin
said that he would like to enhance the defense and mil-mil
relationship by posting a Defense Attache to the Brunei
Embassy in Washington, DC. Yasmin also would like to have
the MinDef-sponsored think tank, the Institute of Defense and
Strategic Studies, establish a relationship with a U.S. think
tank to bring more U.S. speakers to participate in Brunei
strategic issues fora.


3. (C) Pehin Halbi said that Brunei was looking for just the
right candidate to put forward as a nominee for the U.S.
Naval Academy. Yasmin and Halbi said that they understood
only the best could compete for entry into Annapolis, and
MinDef would want to follow the model they set with the
current West Point and new Air Force Academy cadets and find
the best person possible. Yasmin added that once funding
issues are clarified, the GoB would assign an education
liaison officer to its Washington mission to support the
growing number of MinDef-sponsored scholarship students as
well as do the ground work for more general scholarship
students to attend U.S. universities.

--------------
FOCIS HAS HELPED
--------------


4. (C) Yasmin thanked us for bringing the FOCIS defense cost
modeling system to Brunei. He said that the system had been
very helpful in developing the current fiscal year budget.
However, normal staff rotations had left MinDef with few
users familiar with how to run the model. We suggested that
if current staff could not train their replacements we would
forward a request back to Washington for follow on training.

--------------
SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING MINDANAO EXPANSION
--------------


5. (C) Commenting on the recent visit of senior defense
officials from the Philippines, Pehin Yasmin said that the
GoB was seriously considering expanding its staff assigned to
the International Monitoring Team (IMT) on Mindanao. He said
that MinDef was negotiating a status of forces agreement with
the Philippines to facilitate this, as well as to lay the
basis for further joint military activities with the
Philippines, regardless of whether Malaysia pulls out of the
IMT.

BANDAR SER 00000173 002 OF 002


FRIEDMAN