CANADA SUPPORTS BROADENING ANA TRUST FUND MANDATE,

C O N F I D E N T I A L OTTAWA 001493 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/26/2018 TAGS: PREL NATO MARR MOPS AF CA SUBJECT: CANADA SUPPORTS BROADENING ANA TRUST FUND MANDATE, CONTRIBUTION UNLIKELY REF: A. STATE 125172 ¶B. OTTAWA 1238 Classified By: PolMinCouns Scott Bellard, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (U) This is an action request -- see para 5. ¶2. (C) In the absence of the Ambassador, DCM spoke to David Mulroney, Deputy Minister and Afghanistan Coordinator in the Privy Council Office, regarding the U.S.-led initiative to broaden the mandate of NATO,s ANA Trust Fund (ref a). Mulroney confirmed that Canada will support broadening the trust fund,s mandate to include ANA sustainment costs. DCM noted the Embassy's discussions with Canadian officials during the recent election campaign about a $100 million per year Canadian contribution to the fund (ref b),and asked whether the government had begun consideration of that request since formation of the new Cabinet on October 29. Mulroney stated that there &is not much possibility of8 a Canadian financial contribution to the trust fund &in the next two years,8 as Canada continues to ramp up its military mission (and associated costs) in Kandahar. In that regard, Mulroney noted Canada's recent announcement that it is deploying eight CH-146 Griffon (U.S. UH-1 equivalent) helicopters and their associated personnel to Kandahar. ¶3. (C) DCM noted that Prime Minister Harper, Defence Minister MacKay, and Foreign Minister Cannon had all made statements since the Canadian election on October 14 reiterating that Canada's military mission in Afghanistan will end in 2011, and asked whether this had now moved beyond election campaign rhetoric to become settled government policy. Mulroney said that the PM and others have also said that Canada will have a &diplomatic and development8 mission in Kandahar after 2011, consistent with the March 2008 Parliamentary resolution, but not a military mission. He commented that the nature of Canada's post-2011 mission in Kandahar will depend on the success in achieving its Kandahar goals. Mulroney pointed out that Canada had had missions in other parts of Afghanistan before moving to Kandahar, and suggested that some kind of continuing military mission might be possible in Afghanistan after 2011. ¶4. (C) In separate conversation, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) Afghanistan policy advisor David Fairchild told poloff that Secretary Gates had mentioned the trust fund mandate expansion in his recent discussions with Canadian officials in Cornwallis for the RC-S DefMin meeting. Fairchild said that Secretary Gates had told Canadian interlocutors that the U.S. planned to seek money for the trust fund from Japan as well as some of the Gulf States. Fairchild inquired about the status of these efforts, and sought further information on which other non-NATO countries the U.S. plans to approach. ¶5. (U) Action request: please provide any information available to respond to DFAIT's inquiry about likely or possible non-NATO funding for the ANA trust fund. ¶6. (C) COMMENT: Shortly after PM Harper publicly said Canada's military mission in Afghanistan would end in 2011, DM Mulroney had implied privately that we could interpret the comment as a campaign tactic. His changed tone suggests that the government has now made the 2011 date a firm policy, from which it will not easily deviate. Visit Canada,s Economy and Environment Forum at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/can ada Qhttp://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/ca nada WILKINS