DEMARCHE DELIVERED TO SPAIN REGARDING NATO

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 000933 SIPDIS EUR/PRM (PETER CHISHOLM, LAURA LUCAS),USNATO (ALEJANDRO BAEZ AND JEFFREY WORKMAN, USEU (APAR SIDHU) E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/26/2018 TAGS: EUN NATO PREL SUBJECT: DEMARCHE DELIVERED TO SPAIN REGARDING NATO COUNTER-PIRACY DISCUSSION REF: A. STATE 91387 ¶B. MADRID 685 Classified By: DCM Arnold Chacon for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Polcouns and Pol-Mil officer met August 26 with Spanish MOD Deputy Director General for Defense Policy Brigadier General Jose Munoz Castresana, advising him that USNATO planned to raise the piracy issue in the August 27 NAC, asking the NAC to task the NMA,s with reviewing possible NATO responses to piracy in the Horn of Africa. Polcouns stressed the need for transparency and coordination given possible Spanish, ESPD, and NATO responses as well as the U.S. preference for defining its potential interaction with the EU on defense and security matters in and through NATO. ¶2. (C) Munoz Castresana said Spain,s interest was in mounting a response to the pirate threat as soon as possible (he noted the tuna season ends around November). He said Spain hoped to send at least one warship and one patrol plane, operating either from Djibouti or the Seychelles, perhaps as early as September. However, in order to do this they needed at least one other nation, European or otherwise, to join them. To this end they were canvassing all the countries which had supported UNSCR 1816. Their efforts have not yet secured any concrete support (Munoz Castresana expressed disappointment that countries such as Italy which, like Spain, had suffered from the depredations of the pirates had not yet stepped up). Asked about the French contribution, he demurred, but noted the French area of interest was closer to the Gulf of Aden while Spain's fishing fleet would be operating closer to the Seychelles. He said Spain hoped this short-term effort could later be replaced by an ESDP operation. He said Spain certainly did not object to a NATO effort, but could not wait for NATO, since Spain believed it was important to act as soon as possible. Nevertheless, he did not expect Spain would have any objection to the matter being discussed in the NAC as the United States proposed. He recognized the need for coordination and transparency among the various potential efforts. He also said Spain (as we have reported previously, e.g., ref b) would be very interested in any assistance the United States might be willing to provide, either via NATO or bilaterally, to the Spanish effort. ¶3. (C) Additionally, Poloff delivered reftel points to Spanish MFA Deputy Political Director Ricardo Lopez Aranda. Lopez acknowledged the points but did not provide a substantive response. Aguirre