CWC: GERMANY STILL REVIEWING REVISED DRAFT HOST

C O N F I D E N T I A L BERLIN 001512 SIPDIS THE HAGUE FOR CWC DEL E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/05/2018 TAGS: PARM PREL KTIA CWC GM SUBJECT: CWC: GERMANY STILL REVIEWING REVISED DRAFT HOST COUNTRY AGREEMENT REF: STATE 112671 Classified By: DEPUTY POLITICAL SECTION HEAD STAN OTTO: 1.4 (B) AND (D) . ¶1. (C) Post delivered reftel points to MFA Chemical and Biological Weapons Office Director Alexander Olbrich, Deputy Holger Ruthe and Desk Officer Juliane Thuemmel November 5, emphasizing the continued interest of the United States in concluding a Host Country Agreement on the conduct of Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) challenge inspections in Germany, in which U.S. assets may be within or in the vicinity of the inspection site. ¶2. (C) Olbrich said that Germany remained willing to conclude such an agreement, but could not yet offer any substantive comments on the revised draft provided by the U.S. in November 2007 because it was still under review by MOD. Obrich said he would coordinate with the responsible action officer there (Lt. Colonel Ewald Nau, ewaldnau@bmvg.bund.de) to see about getting a formal German response to the U.S. draft before the December 2-5 CWC Conference of States Parties in The Hague. He acknowledged that because challenge inspections under the CWC were still theoretical at this point (with none having ever been requested),review of the revised draft agreement had not been considered as urgent as other CWC work. ¶3. (C) Olbrich readily agreed to the suggestion that the U.S. and German delegations to the December conference meet on the margins to discuss the agreement. He noted, however, that Deputy MFA Director General for Disarmament and Arms Control Klaus Wunderlich, who will lead the German delegation, would probably be unable to attend these bilateral discussions since he is only attending the conference for the first couple of days. Ruthe suggested that he and Thuemmel meet their U.S. delegation counterparts during the afternoon of December 3 or sometime on December 4. He welcomed U.S. delegation members contacting him (243-0@diplo.de) or Thuemmel (243-1@diplo.de) directly to work out exact arrangements. ¶4. (C) Post will report septel any substantive comments that the MFA or MOD provides on the revised draft agreement prior to the December conference. KOENIG