ZIMBABWE/UN COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT:

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 000865 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR IO/EDA REBECCA WEBBER AND OES/ENV KERI HOLLAND E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/05/2018 TAGS: SENV AORC PREL EAGR EUN EAID ECON ZI FR SUBJECT: ZIMBABWE/UN COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: FRANCE TO SEND "SENIOR BUT NOT MINISTERIAL-LEVEL" REPRESENTATIVES REF: STATE 40180 Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, 1.4 (b/d). ¶1. (C) MFA Zimbabwe desk officer Isabelle de Boisgelin on May 2 said that France would send "senior representatives" (but not at ministerial level) to the May 5-16 meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-16),to be chaired by Zimbabwe's Minister of Environment and Tourism, Francis Nhema (reftel). The two French representatives will be Christian Brodhag (Interministerial Delegate for Sustainable Development),who will lead France's delegation for the first portion of the meeting, and Laurent Stefanini (Ambassador-Delegate for the Environment),who will head the French delegation for the latter part of the meeting. ¶2. (C) Boisgelin said that France would ordinarily have sent a minister or secretary of state to head the French team at such a meeting, but that the GOF very much shared USG concerns and decided that the level of representation should be lowered. Boisgelin said that the UK also took this view and she said that the matter had been much discussed within the EU, with some EU countries, however, indicating that ministers would head their delegations. ¶3. (C) Boisgelin said that, if Francis Nhema did chair the meeting and claimed to be Zimbabwe's Minister of Environment and Tourism, France and the UK were likely to express their "reservations" to the UN. As Boisgelin explained it, neither the UK nor France considers Nhema to be a GOZ minister, in view of the unresolved elections controversy in Zimbabwe. Boisgelin said that she understood that Nhema might chair the meeting as an "advisor" rather than as a "minister," in an effort to avoid this issue. Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm STAPLETON