DEMARCHE DELIVERED: POLLING POTENTIAL DONORS ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 000260 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/ACE, NEA/ARP E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/01/2018 TAGS: AS BA CA EG EAID EFIN PREL EINV SUBJECT: DEMARCHE DELIVERED: POLLING POTENTIAL DONORS ON ASSISTANCE TO KOSOVO REF: A. STATE 18802 ¶B. KUWAIT 196 ¶C. STATE 17891 Classified By: CDA Alan G. Misenheimer for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) On February 28, econoff delivered Ref A demarche to MFA Americas Department First Secretary Hamad Al-Mashan and reiterated previous calls by emboffs for the GOK to recognize Kosovo as soon as possible. Al-Mashan said that any discussion or consideration of assistance would be premature until the GOK officially recognizes Kosovo. He reconfirmed that, per Ref B, the GOK will coordinate with its GCC partners to determine the timing of its recognition of Kosovo. Al-Mashan said the GCC member countries will not necessarily recognize Kosovo together, but they will coordinate the timing of their announcements. He said the MFA will review Kosovo's Medium Term Expenditure Framework and will be ready to discuss this with Post following formal recognition, which he speculated would happen in the next 1-2 weeks. ********************************************* * For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s Visit Kuwait's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ ********************************************* * Misenheimer