AFGHANISTAN: SEEKING SWISS SUPPORT FOR THE AFGHAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L BERN 000573

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/A, DRL, AND EUR/CE (Y.SAINT-ANDRE)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/06/2013
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PREL AF SZ
SUBJECT: AFGHANISTAN: SEEKING SWISS SUPPORT FOR THE AFGHAN
ELECTIONS AND THE ANA

REF: A. STATE 108855

B. BERN 525

Classified By: POL/E Counselor Richard A. Rorvig; reasons 1.4(b) and (d
).

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ELECTIONS
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1. (C) Poloff delivered the reftel A message on November 6 to
Pierre-Yves Fux, Senior Coordinator for South Asia at the
Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA). Fux was
not aware of the UNDP "basket fund" and appreciated the
information. He noted that Switzerland has made a multi-year
commitment (approximately CHF 100 million over five years,
2006-2010) to civil reconstruction in Afghanistan, and
reported that the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation
(SDC) is increasing its staffing in Kabul from three to five
Swiss nationals. However, while acknowledging the importance
of the 2009/2010 Afghan elections, Fux could make no
commitments that the GOS would provide funding support for
those elections. He commented that Swiss foreign assistance
funding is on a tight budget, but the GOS's decision to phase
out its assistance programs in Pakistan eventually could
provide some additional resources. Fux undertook to
coordinate within the GOS to determine whether Swiss election
funding support would be feasible. He also noted that, if
Afghan refugees are included in the elections, there might be
additional (theoretical) funding options available to the
EDA/SDC.

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AFGHAN NATIONAL ARMY (ANA)
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2. (C) Fux also told poloff on November 6 that Swiss
inter-agency feedback thus far on the idea of funding for ANA
sustainment was not positive. He attributed this mostly to
atmospherics, explaining that the idea of substantial Swiss
funding assistance to ANA sustainment tended to get tangled
up with the broader domestic political debate about Swiss
military engagement abroad. Public and parliamentary
concerns about such engagement ultimately undermined Swiss
participation in ISAF, which the MOD ended only a year ago,
Fux observed. Though the GOS has continued occasionally to
provide training in civil-military relations to a small
number of individual Afghan military officers in Switzerland,
and the MOD is pursuing a donation of excess hospital
equipment to the ANA, Fux indicated that such support did not
rise to the level of generating political debate in
Switzerland. He said candidly that he could press the issue
for a definitive GOS answer to our request for sustainment
funding to the ANA, but that doing so in the current domestic
Swiss political atmosphere likely would generate a negative
response. Fux further suggested that avoiding a negative GOS
decision on this question now could possibly preserve
flexibility for more GOS support to the ANA at some point in
the future.
CONEWAY