FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT:SWISS DELEGATION

UNCLAS BERN 000592 SENSITIVE SIPDIS PLEASE PASS TO EEB/IFD/ODF FOR K.MONAHAN AND IO/EDA FOR J.HARRIMAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EAID UNGA SZ SUBJECT: FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT:SWISS DELEGATION REF: STATE 122053 ¶1. (SBU) Econoff delivered reftel points on November 20 to Marcus Eggenberger, Programme Manager, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC),Department of Foreign Affairs. Eggenberger reported that the Swiss position remains the same as provided in the Swiss discussion paper located online at the Financing for Development webpage. Further elaboration on the Swiss policy was not provided. ¶2. (SBU) Post also inquired into the Swiss' stated policy that the UN, in addition to expert fora such as the Financial Stability Forum and G-20, should be a role player in handling systematic issues and the financial crisis. Eggenberger stated that the UN should be involved as a platform for all countries that are currently not involved in the expert fora. He noted that while expertise will be through the FSF or G-20, and that clarification was still needed as to the exact role of the UN in this regard, the UN nevertheless should be utilized to integrate the opinion of all the unrepresented countries. ¶3. (U) The Swiss delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey and accompanied by SDC Director General Martin Dahinden, Eggenberger, and officials from the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and Federal Department of Finance. ¶3. (U) Post action officer is Leslie Freriksen, freriksenld@state.gov, 41 31 357 7418. CONEWAY