THAI FEEDBACK ON PROPOSED ARF STATEMENT ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L BANGKOK 001790 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/11/2018 TAGS: PREL ARF EAID ASEAN TH SUBJECT: THAI FEEDBACK ON PROPOSED ARF STATEMENT ON REGIONAL DISASTER PREPAREDNESS REF: STATE 61440 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i., James F. Entwistle, reason 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Post delivered reftel points regarding the proposed ARF Ministerial Statement on Regional Disaster Preparedness to MFA Counselor Suriya Chindawongse on June 10. In response, Suriya stated that Thailand was generally supportive of USG initiatives and appreciated the spirit behind the proposal. However, he felt that further clarification was needed on the process for producing such a statement, and that the proposal was too late for consideration at the July ARF meeting. ¶2. (C) Suriya expressed concern that senior ARF officials would not be able to review a statement and move it forward in time for the July meeting. He said that no procedures were in place to consider items not proposed during ARF meetings. He was also unsure how to combine an ARF and ASEAN Standby Arrangement System (SAS). He pointed out that ASEAN countries needed to work on individual SASs and that trying to combine the two would overwhelm a program that was at present incomplete. He expressed interest in learning more about the proposed mechanisms of an ARF SOFA template since he observed that most SOFAs were bilateral agreements, not multilateral. Responding to our suggestion that an ASEAN country draft the text, Suriya observed that, since this was a USG proposal, he would think it natural for the USG to provide a draft. ¶3. (C) Suriya felt that our proposed ARF Workplan for Regional Disaster Preparedness would detract from ARF action and add to an overflow of ARF documents, including ARF's draft "strategic guidelines," which Suriya predicted would not be ready by the July meeting, despite a year-long review. Nevertheless, Suriya added that he would be meeting with ASEAN members next week and would be willing to mention the proposed statement at that time. He suggested that an alternative option would be to consider the statement next year, when Thailand chairs ARF. ENTWISTLE