MALAYSIA WILL RECOGNIZE KOSOVO, BUT TIMING STILL

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUALA LUMPUR 000121 SIPDIS SIPDIS FOR KOSOVO MONITORING GROUP AND EAP/MTS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/20/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV UN UNMIK YI EU MY SUBJECT: MALAYSIA WILL RECOGNIZE KOSOVO, BUT TIMING STILL AN ISSUE REF: A. STATE 17470 ¶B. KUALA LUMPUR 111 - MALAYSIA WELCOMES KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE Classified By: Political Section Chief Mark D. Clark, reason 1.4 (b and d). ¶1. (C) In the absence of the Ambassador and the Foreign Minister, Political Section Chief delivered ref A demarche to the Malaysian Foreign Ministry's acting Under Secretary for European Affairs Mahinder Singh, who is also Under Secretary for the Americas. Polchief praised Malaysia for its February 20 statement welcoming Kosovo's independence (ref B),and urged Malaysia to immediately take the next step by extending official recognition. Mahinder responded that "the decision is already there" for Malaysia to recognize Kosovo. Timing of recognition, however, remained undecided. "We must be careful," Mahinder added, "we too have an embassy in Belgrade," alluding to the mob violence directed at the U.S. Embassy there. ¶2. (C) Mahinder said Malaysia continued to watch carefully the decisions of European nations regarding Kosovo, and polchief provided an update on the supportive positions of European countries per ref A. Mahinder noted that decisions by Middle Eastern countries, including Kuwait, also would influence Malaysia's judgment on the timing of recognition and he inquired if we had additional information on the positions of Arab nations. On the practical side, Mahinder asked what formal, mechanical steps the U.S. had taken to convey its recognition, and to whom in Kosovo, and whether we could share the text of recognition documents. We immediately forwarded these questions to the Kosovo Monitoring Group. KEITH