PANAMA: ADDITIONAL KOSOVO RECOGNITION DEMARCHE

C O N F I D E N T I A L PANAMA 000255 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SCE, WHA/PPC, WHA/CEN, AND IO/UNP E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/27/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV UNAUS UNMIK YI EU MY PM UV SUBJECT: PANAMA: ADDITIONAL KOSOVO RECOGNITION DEMARCHE DELIVERED REF: STATE 30452 Classified By: Ambassador William A. Eaton. Reason: 1.4 (d). -------------- Panama working through SICA -------------- ¶1. (C) "We are working with the Central American Integration System (SICA) to see if we pull together several of our neighbors to join Panama in recognizing Kosovo," First VP and FM Samuel Lewis told Ambassador March 26 in response to reftel demarche. "Panama has no problem recognizing Kosovo, but we could not do so while Panama still held the presidency of the UN Security Council," Lewis added. While it would not be possible to get all SICA members to agree to recognize, Lewis said he believed that Panama could bring most SICA members along. (Note: The following countries are SICA members: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. The Dominican Republic is an associated state. Spain, Mexico, and Taiwan are observers.) Lewis said, "I will work this issue myself." -------------- Spanish Diplomacy Against Recognition -------------- ¶2. (C) Lewis asserted that Spanish diplomacy had been effective in dissuading Latin American countries from recognizing Kosovo. "The Spanish argue: what do you get out of recognizing Kosovo? That's an effective message for countries with close ties to Spain when Kosovo is half-way around the world," Lewis explained. Lewis said Spanish diplomacy on this matter was driven out of concern for its own Basque and Catalan separatist challenges. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶3. (C) Panama has been stalling since February 16 when Lewis told Ambassador it would recognize Kosovo "soon, but after the Europeans." Reftel statistics noting that three-fourths of the EU, half of Serbia's and Kosovo's neighbors, all G-7 members and that the pace of recognition had been faster than for Bangladesh, Croatia, Macedonia, Eritrea or East Timor had a significant impact. Given Panama's reluctance to date to blaze a path forward on Kosovo recognition, it remains to be seen whether Lewis will indeed carry out effective diplomatic efforts to bring along multiple Central American countries (and possible the Domincan Republic) to recognize Kosovo. EATON