SLOVENIA FOCUSED ON RUSSIA'S NEIGHBOURS AT OCTOBER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LJUBLJANA 000454 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/ERA, EUR/CE E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/08/2018 TAGS: PREL EUNPHUM PGOV ZI UZ BO GG RS SI SUBJECT: SLOVENIA FOCUSED ON RUSSIA'S NEIGHBOURS AT OCTOBER 13 GAERC REF: A. STATE 108064 ¶B. STATE 107524 Classified By: DCM Brad Freden, Reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. This is an action request. Please see para. 3. Summary -------------- ¶2. (C) On October 9 Emboff delivered our points in advance of the October 13 GAERC meeting (ref A) to MFA European Correspondent Aljaz Arih. Arih indicated that the FMs' discussions of Georgia at the GAERC would be linked to the October 15 EU Council and the meeting in Geneva. He said they planned to issue Council Conclusions on Georgia, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Zimbabwe, and Moldova (without a discussion). Arih asked for more details about the Secretary's proposal to possibly penalize Russian firms operating illegally in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. He noted the EU FMs were still discussing whether to lift travel restrictions on Belarusian President Lukashenko. Arih said Slovenia agreed with our points and that the Council Conclusions were also in line with them. End Summary. Georgia -------------- ¶3. (C) Arih agreed with our points on Georgia. He noted that Slovenia will finalize its position after receiving EU Special Representative for the Georgia Crisis Pierre Morel's report to the PSC (scheduled for October 10). Arih added that he expected that Morel would provide a non-paper to facilitate preparations for the October 15 discussions in Geneva. He stressed that the question of security and stability in the region, which required the deployment of the EUMM throughout all of Georgia, would be part of that discussion. Arih emphasized that Slovenia was very interested in U.S. thinking about the Secretary's proposal at the September 30 lunch meeting with the EU Ambassadors about the possibility of sanctions against Russian businesses operating illegally in South Ossetia and Abkhazia (ref B). Embassy requests Washington's assistance in sending us more details we could share on this proposal. ¶4. (C) Arih also lamented that Slovenia's "rigid system" of approving participation in peace-keeping and civilian missions abroad, coupled with the recent Slovenian elections, had prevented Slovenia from sending monitors in the first tranche. Referring to Slovenia's current situation of waiting for the new government to form, he added that he was �A;not sure who would represent Slovenia at the October 22 donors' conference or whether Slovenia would contribute anything in addition to the 100,000 euros it had already given in humanitarian assistance. Arih commented that Slovenia felt it important that the Geneva discussions take a broader view to include Abkhazia. He added that Slovenia felt it necessary to somehow have participation from South Ossetia and Abkhazia, while being careful not to legitimize their independent status or confer recognition. ... and Russia -------------- ¶5. (C) Arih explained that the discussion on EU-Russia relations at the EU Council would be broader, and not just in the context of the situation in Georgia. According to Arih, the Commission had prepared some proposals on the way forward. Although the EU-Russia Summit is scheduled for November 14, it is not yet confirmed. Arih noted that several member-states doubted whether the Summit should occur. Slovenia's position was that the Summit should go forward in order to keep the doors open for discussion, but that further negotiations on the PSA should remain contingent on progress on the ground in Georgia. Belarus -------------- ¶6. (C) Arih discussed the EU's quandary about partially lifting sanctions against Belarus. The background of the debate was Belarus releasing its political prisoners and allowing OSCE election observers juxtaposed with the "terrible" elections. He said the EU was encouraged that Belarus had not recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia. He cited a concern that given Russia's regional role, the EU wanted to "prevent Belarus from falling fully into Russia's LJUBLJANA 00000454 002 OF 002 hands." There was broad agreement that the EU should send some positive signal to Minsk, but the question was how far the EU should go in lifting travel restrictions. The question boiled down to whether to take President Lukashenko off the blacklist. Arih said that Slovenia would not oppose removing Lukashenko from the list if a big majority of member-states believed that could contribute to an improvement in EU-Belarus relations. He commented that the EU should continue to stress the importance of respect for human rights and should also include a review clause in the Council Conclusions so that if there were no improvement, the EU could return to its current policy. Arih mentioned that the Presidency wanted to organize a troika discussion with FM Martinov on the margins of the GAERC, which Slovenia supported as conducive to improving relations with Belarus. Uzbekistan -------------- ¶7. (C) Arih said that the EU FMs would also address the question of renewing sanctions against Uzbekistan. The French Presidency had proposed to lift travel restrictions for those on the EU list. Arih said there was broad agreement among member-states, although all were not yet on board, to lift the travel ban while renewing the sanctions relating to the arms embargo and freezing financial assets. Arih noted that in Slovenia's view, the situation had not improved, but Slovenia agreed with this partial lifting in order to send a positive signal to the Uzbeks to be more active in improving human rights. GHAFARI