KYRGYZ INTERESTED IN GLOBAL PEACEKEEPING

UNCLAS BISHKEK 000719 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR SCA/CEN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL MARR KG SUBJECT: KYRGYZ INTERESTED IN GLOBAL PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS INITIATIVE REF: STATE 4365 Sensitive but unclassified. Not for Internet distribution. ¶1. (U) The Kyrgyz MFA sent Embassy a diplomatic note, dated June 27, 2008, requesting that the Kyrgyz Republic be considered eligible to participate in the Global Peacekeeping Operations Initiative (GPOI). The Kyrgyz government had earlier asked for information about GPOI, and on May 16 the Ambassador wrote to then-Minister of Defense Isakov, providing information about the program and explaining that the Kyrgyz government would need to make an official request to the State Department to be considered a GPOI-eligible country. ¶2. (U) The Embassy's unofficial translation of the main text of the Kyrgyz diplomatic note follows: (Complimentary opening) The Kyrgyz side, having reviewed the U.S. State Department proposal relating to the participation of Kyrgyzstan in the Global Peacekeeping Operations Initiative (GPOI) program, requests to consider the possibility of including the Kyrgyz Republic in the list of countries, which are accepted for participation in this program. In this event, the Ministry kindly requests that the respected Embassy inform the Kyrgyz side of the results of the consideration of the current application and provide detailed information about the conditions of participating in the GPOI program. (Complimentary closing.) ¶3. (SBU) Separately, we still do not have a response from the Kyrgyz government on the proposed end-use, retransfer, and security assurances agreement ("505 Agreement"). We will continue to push for a positive response to the U.S. proposal (reftel),pointing out that having such an agreement in place would be useful for GPOI, as well as certain other future security-related grant assistance. YOVANOVITCH