APPRECIATION FOR ENGAGEMENT AT THE MUNICH SECURITY

UNCLAS MUNICH 000066 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR EUR/AGS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV ASEC GM SUBJECT: APPRECIATION FOR ENGAGEMENT AT THE MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE REFS: A) MUNICH 17; B) MUNICH 52 ¶1. Consulate General Munich wishes to express its appreciation for the assistance provided by Mission Germany colleagues in supporting the 44th Munich Security Conference. ¶2. Attending the Conference were three heads of government, 20 foreign ministers, and 23 defense ministers. The U.S. delegation held 21 bilateral and multilateral meetings and engaged more than 60 media outlets in a dozen press events. U.S. participation was substantial, with a total delegation of 223, including Secretary of Defense Gates, CODEL Lieberman with two U.S. Senators, three members of the House of Representatives and one governor, EUR Assistant Secretary Fried, VCI Assistant Secretary DeSutter, Ambassador to SIPDIS Germany Timken, Ambassador to NATO Nuland, Ambassador to Belarus Stewart, DAS Kramer, DAS Butler, and other senior USG representatives. The delegation's collective focus on engaging the 40 German Bundestag members attending invigorated the dialogue about NATO's success and shortcomings in Afghanistan. ¶3. In particular, post would like to recognize the following Mission Germany offices/individuals who assisted with the conference. Without their assistance and teamwork, our Mission could not have made the important participation by senior U.S. Government officials at the conference a success: - Ambassador Timken: for leadership that successfully prioritized intensive engagement of German Bundestag members by delegation members. - DCM John Koenig: for outstanding strategic guidance in planning the U.S. delegation's engagements at the conference. - Berlin DATT/ODC (David Allwine, Richard Naughton, Dan Stiver): for assisting in coordination with the Office of the Secretary of Defense. - Berlin GSO (Thorsten Kirch, Michael Schumann, Wolf Meyer): for providing excellent chauffeur services in an extremely difficult traffic/security environment, and assisting with coordination and set-up of bilateral meeting rooms. - Berlin PA (Robert Wood, Maja Boehm, Nancy Rajczak, Julia Sebastian): for arranging press interviews with more than sixty media outlets for U.S. participants, including Defense Secretary Gates, Ambassador Timken, Ambassador Nuland, and Assistant Secretary Dan Fried; assisting with CODEL press requests; providing rapid transcriptions of Secretary Gates' remarks; tracking and disseminating media reaction; and quickly uploading photos and speeches to the Mission's public websites (http://munich.usconsulate.gov). - Berlin Pol-Mil (Bill Moeller, Ken Kero, Thorsten Schulz): for note taking during conference sessions and bilateral meetings, providing rapid, detailed reporting to Washington. Additionally Ken Kero's early arrival allowed control officer Tom Kelsey to participate in PRT training at Ft. Bragg. - Jeff Rathke (Berlin POL): for serving as a liaison with the German Foreign Office and supporting A/S Fried during the conference. - Sam Ward (ARSO Berlin): for critical protection of principal VIPs. ¶4. Previous reporting from Munich is available on our SIPRNET website at www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/munich/ . NELSON