CDMA 2008: CANADA TO PROMOTE SECRETARIAT

C O N F I D E N T I A L OTTAWA 001130 NOFORN SIPDIS STATE FOR PM J. BURNETT DOD.OSD FOR C. PHONGKHAMSAVATH E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/25/2018 TAGS: PREL MARR PGOV OAS CA SUBJECT: CDMA 2008: CANADA TO PROMOTE SECRETARIAT REF: A. STATE 3680 ¶B. OTTAWA 1068 Classified By: Acting PolMinCouns Kurt van der Walde, reason 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C//NF) Summary: At their September 4 meeting in Banff, Minister of Defence MacKay will urge Secretary of Defense Gates to support the creation of a secretariat for the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas (CDMA). Canada believes a secretariat is required to bolster the CDMA's ability to track and advance decisions made at its bi-annual meetings. Canadian officials favor placing a secretariat at the Organization of American States (OAS),but would be open to another venue. MacKay plans to urge his fellow ministers in Banff to agree that the CDMA Troika should study the secretariat concept and deliver its recommendation in Bolivia in 2010. End summary. ¶2. (C//NF) On September 22, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) Deputy Director for Defence Relations Michael Kaduck told pol/miloff that in his conversation with Secretary Gates at the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas (CDMA),Canadian Minister of Defence Peter MacKay would raise the need to create a new institution, or empower an existing one, to serve as a CDMA secretariat. Canada wants the CDMA to be more than a bi-annual "genial talk shop," Kaduck said. To achieve its potential, he argued, the CDMA should have the wherwithall to advocate and track member state implementation of CDMA decisions and be able to call on institutional memory. ¶3. (C//NF) MacKay would like to hear Secretary Gates' thinking on the matter when the two meet in Banff, Kaduck said, as Canada has not yet formed an opinion on where the secretariat ought to be placed. Nor have Canadian officials looked closely at related funding issues, he acknowledged. The Organization of American States (OAS) might be an appropriate venue, Kaduck noted, but DFAIT and Department of National Defence (DND) staff would likely recommend against placing a secretariat at the OAS Inter-American Defense Board (IADB) due to that organization's "Cold War political baggage." Mischief-making Latin American governments could exploit this political baggage to derail a secretariat and its implications for increased accountability, he explained (ref B). ¶4. (C//NF) MacKay plans to raise the matter in his many bilaterals with other delegation heads at Banff, Kaduck said, as a way to see how much support there is for Canada's view that the CDMA needs a "home." Canadian officials will propose at the plenary that the "U.S.-recommended Troika" study the matter and deliver its recommendations at the 2010 CDMA in Bolivia. Visit Canada,s Economy and Environment Forum at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/can ada WILKINS