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