GOI TO SEND MINISTER, NOT MONEY, TO PARIS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NEW DELHI 001441 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT PASS TO LAUREN FRESE, SCA/A E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/28/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM EAID EFIN IN AF SUBJECT: GOI TO SEND MINISTER, NOT MONEY, TO PARIS CONFERENCE ON AFGHANISTAN REF: A. STATE 032155 ¶B. NEW DELHI 1433 Classified By: PolCouns Ted Osius, for reasons 1.4 (b, d) ¶1. (C/REL ACGU) SUMMARY: MEA Deputy Secretary (Afghanistan) Piyush Srivastava disclosed to Poloffs May 28 that the GOI will likely send a Minister level GOI representative to the June 12 International Conference on Afghanistan in Paris, corroborating what the Australian POLOFF told Post at a May 27 luncheon. According to Srivastava, the GOI does not view the Paris conference as a pledging conference and will likely not pledge additional sums of money. Srivastava admitted that increasing concern for the safety of Indian workers is having a dampening affect on soliciting Indian companies willing to take on new development projects inside Afghanistan, but underlined that contrary to recent media reports construction of the Afghan Parliament building would proceed as planned. END SUMMARY. -- INDIA TO SEND MINISTER, BUT NO CASH, TO PARIS CONFERENCE -- ¶2. (C/REL ACGU) In a May 28 meeting with PolOffs, MEA Deputy Secretary (Afghanistan) Piyush Srivastava disclosed that the GOI will likely be sending "a Minister level" GOI representative to the June 12 International Conference on Afghanistan in Paris (Ref A.) This corroborates what Australian POLOFF Murray Harris told Poloffs at a May 27 luncheon, that the GOI told him it would be sending Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahmed to head the GOI delegation. (NOTE: A Minister of State is a largely ceremonial senior position in the Indian bureaucracy without a counterpart in the Department of State. END NOTE.) ¶3. (C) Asked to characterize India's planned pledge at the June 12 conference, Srivastava revealed that the GOI did not consider the Paris conference to be a pledging conference and had no intention of pledging new money. Poloff stressed that the U.S. would be making a significant contribution, and that additional contributions would be necessary to fund the 2009/10 elections in Afghanistan costing an estimated USD 400 million. Srivastava noted that India already has plans to spend USD 750 million on Afghan development over eight years (2002-2010). Cost overruns and new small-scale projects have increased the actual total Indian contribution to USD 900 million. Reftel B reports on the possibility that India will increase its contribution to Afghanistan. -- SECURITY JITTERS TAKING A TOLL ON INDIAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN AFGHANISTAN -- ¶4. (C/REL ACGU) POLOFF felicitated Srivastava on the safe return of the kidnapped Indian engineer, Sarang Mohammed Naeem. (NOTE: Unknown assailants kidnapped Naeem and his Nepalese companion in Herat province April 22, and freed them unharmed May 18. END NOTE.) POLOFF inquired whether Naeem's ordeal, coupled with two incidences of fatal armed attacks on Indian construction crews in Afghanistan within the past six months, were linked to recent press reports that the GOI has been unsuccessful in finding a contractor to build the new Afghan Parliament building. Srivastava conceded that the GOI was having a harder time than expected in finding a contractor willing to take on the job of building the Parliament house; "rather than the 50 companies we would normally expect to bid on a job this lucrative, we have received bids from only about ten." Yet he affirmed that several prominent companies have submitted bids, a contractor would be chosen, and the building would proceed as planned. He elaborated that under Indian law, a project on the scale of the Parliament building must be awarded to an Indian company, and that only small pieces of NEW DELHI 00001441 002 OF 002 the total work could be sub-contracted out to foreign firms. He opined that because the Parliament job is to take place in Kabul, security concerns should be less of a deterrent than for jobs in the South. MULFORD