BOUCHER AND FRENCH OFFICIALS DISCUSS AFGHAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 001975 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2018 TAGS: PREL AF FR UZ TZ CH TA SUBJECT: BOUCHER AND FRENCH OFFICIALS DISCUSS AFGHAN NEIGHBOR'S MEETING, SECURITY AND PAKISTAN Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Kathleen Allegrone for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary. During an October 21-22 visit to Paris, Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher discussed with numerous French officials the next steps of the UN "Friends of Pakistan" group and U.S. efforts to tighten security by supporting police and trainers in Pakistan's frontier tribal areas. On Afghanistan, he encouraged additional European support for expanding the reach of Afghanistan's government and recruitment of police trainers and he provided USG input to help shape France's proposed "Afghanistan Neighbor's Meeting" by ensuring that the United Nations and the government of Afghanistan play central roles. French interlocutors including Philippe Errera and Eric Chevallier, advisors to Foreign Minister Kouchner, requested that the U.S. help them demonstrate to European politicians (and publics) that they are important partners in Afghanistan by consulting closely on military and civilian strategy. Michel Miraillet, Strategic Affairs Director at the Ministry of Defense, requested UK-France-U.S. tri-lateral consultations at the expert's level on Afghanistan and Pakistan to better coordinate on important issues. Francois Richier, Strategic Affairs advisor to President Sarkozy, focused the discussion on maintaining European commitments in Afghanistan and the complex questions involved in any Afghan-led reconciliation process. Boucher also met with parliamentarians, think tankers and his interview with Le Monde was published October 23. End Summary. -------------- PAKISTAN: POSITIVE SIGNS -------------- ¶2. (C) All of the French interlocutors were interested in the latest developments in Pakistan, with Francois Descouyte, the new Director of Asia at the Foreign Ministry (Assistant Secretary-equivalent),noting that Pakistan was formerly neglected in French foreign policy, except for the concern over terrorism. Richier, who had recently accompanied Sarkozy military advisor Admiral Guillaud to Afghanistan and Pakistan, confirmed that the French government now considers Pakistan to be of strategic importance. Elysee Asia advisor Bertrand Lortholary noted that Sarkozy had positive discussions with Zardari on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York in September and was planning to visit Pakistan at some point next year. Lortholary said France also views efforts to address financial security in Pakistan as part of improving overall security in the region. To all of his interlocutors, Boucher observed that recent developments in Pakistan were mostly positive: it is a democratic state with an elected civilian government which is now working more cooperatively with the Pakistan military to fight terrorism in the tribal areas. Pakistan will present a strategy paper at the next "Friends of Pakistan" meeting in Abu Dhabi in mid-November and the U.S. is hoping that the United Nations will take over the secretariat function of the group. The U.S. is also proposing a World Bank trust fund be established for all of the frontier area, to include Baluchistan. Pakistan has a major problem with its currency reserves, but is in discussions for an agreement with the International Monetary Fund. Significant challenges remain, but the Zardari government is showing serious commitment to addressing them. The French Defense Ministry had the most negative views of Pakistan, with Miraillet expressing concerns over Inter-Services Intelligence bureau activities and contacts with insurgents. -------------- EXPANDING AFGHANISTAN'S GOVERNMENT -------------- ¶3. (C) Boucher expressed appreciation for the June conference held in Paris to support Afghanistan. Following up on the conference's broader strategy, the international community now needs to expand the Afghan government out to the provinces and focus on police training to improve security. He urged Europe to increase its EU police training mission (currently at 177 and expected to go up to 400 trainers) and concentrate on getting police trainers willing to deploy out to the regions. The U.S. believes Afghanistan needs up to 3000 new police trainers and we are hoping to assist by providing up to 500 U.S. experts in the near future. We also want to empower the Afghan government by giving social outreach funding to governors and local leaders for development projects. Miraillet noted that the work of police trainers needed in Afghanistan and Pakistan is more military in nature (similar to the French gendarmes),whereas most European countries only have truly civilian police capacities. This makes recruiting difficult. Errera noted that Afghanistan will be on the agenda of the November meeting of EU Foreign Ministers (GAERC) and the EU could consider the EUPOL mandate and police training commitments at that time. -------------- COMPLEX ISSUES IN RECONCILIATION -------------- ¶4. (C) Many of the French interlocutors were interested in U.S. views on reconciliation; in particular the difficulty of determining who could be pardoned under a reconciliation agreement. To all, Boucher reiterated that reconciliation must be led by Afghanistan and should follow Karzai's already stated parameters of requiring that insurgents abandon violence, accept the authority of the Afghan government and not include al-Qaida. He noted that the PTS program already exists for reconciliation with lower-level insurgents. Richier and Lortholary observed that any agreement with the Afghan government would require the allies to provide necessary guarantees of security to those pardoned. Boucher agreed, but noted that we had as yet seen little serious commitment to a peace agreement by higher-level Taliban insurgents. -------------- INITIAL PROPOSALS ON "NEIGHBORS" MEETING -------------- ¶5. (C) French officials referred to the 2002 Kabul declaration as a basis for Foreign Minister Kouchner's proposed meeting of the neighboring countries of Afghanistan in November (or early December). Philippe Errera, Strategic Affairs advisor to Kouchner, is the designated organizer of what is now being called an "informal meeting" at ministerial-level to take place at the Minister's residence in Celle St. Cloud. Boucher emphasized that both the UN and Afghan government should play leading roles in the meeting, perhaps serving as co-chairs for the event. He noted that the third Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan would likely take place in January, so we wanted to ensure that the agendas of the two fora were not duplicative. He suggested three possible areas the neighbors' meeting could address, including: reiterating non-interference in Afghan affairs, coordinating joint efforts in counter-narcotics and counterterrorism, and affirming an openness to regional trade (which could include transportation, energy, water, etc). Errera said that in consultations with Afghan officials thus far, the Afghans were "quite enthusiastic" about the proposal. Paris would like the meeting to generate a chairman's statement or summary, rather than an agreed declaration, which is more difficult. The statement would refer to the leading roles of Afghanistan and the UN, perhaps be co-signed by them. Errera asserted that France would like to keep the meeting participants limited to Afghanistan's geographic neighbors and the P-5 (which is a way to include the U.S. and U.K. while not opening the meeting to all interested countries). Boucher suggested that P-5 countries could be represented at a lower rank. -------------- PLEAS FOR CONSULTATION -------------- ¶6. (C) In every meeting at the Elysee and Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, French interlocutors stressed the importance of including allies in U.S. military and civilian strategic reviews for Afghanistan. Noting that both the White House and General Petraeus are conducting reviews of Afghanistan strategy, Eric Chevallier observed that it was important for European leaders and publics to feel that they are not simply ratifying U.S. demands in the region, but are instead full partners in setting the broader strategic goals. He noted that many European parliamentarians feel that there is no European influence on the Afghanistan strategy, even though they collectively provide half of the ISAF troops. Richier added that the problem of civilian casualties is having a negative impact on European support for troop deployments, to which Boucher responded that ISAF and Enduring Freedom are doing their best to minimize civilian fatalities, but the best means to reduce them is to have additional Afghan ground troops so the allies don't have to rely on air power. All of the French officials requested U.S. help to convince European public opinion that they have an influence on military and civilian strategy in Afghanistan. Chevallier proposed that the U.S. consider a statement by the new administration that it looks forward to working with European partners on Afghanistan; he said such a statement would send an important signal to Europeans. Miraillet suggested that the U.S., France and the UK engage in expert-level discussions on Afghanistan and Pakistan to facilitate coordination, a proposal that Boucher promised to consider. ¶7. (C) Comment: Assistant Secretary Boucher's meetings made clear the increasing priority that France is putting onto Pakistan/Afghanistan issues. It also made clear that French officials remain very sensitive to public opinion, especially following the death of 10 French soldiers in an August 18 attack in Afghanistan. They are looking to the U.S. to assist them with convincing their publics that European engagement in the region is a true "partnership." Paris' efforts, such as the proposal for the Afghanistan Neighbor's meeting, are directly related to its desire to show skeptical Europeans that they are genuinely engaged in meeting the goals of security by emphasizing our broader stabilization and reconstruction strategy in the region. End comment. ¶8. (U) This cable was reviewed and cleared by Assistant Secretary Boucher. STAPLETON