LATVIA RESIGNED ON PCA, WORRIED BY MEDVEDEV

C O N F I D E N T I A L RIGA 000684 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/10/2018 TAGS: PREL EUN RS LG SUBJECT: LATVIA RESIGNED ON PCA, WORRIED BY MEDVEDEV SECURITY PROPOSALS REF: A) STATE 119280 B) WASER/DEAN E-MAIL 11/3/08 C) WASER/LAURENDEAU E-MAIL 11/4/08 Classified By: Ambassador Charles W. Larson, Jr. Reason: 1.4(d) ¶1. (C) We have discussed the issues raised in ref A regarding Russia with Latvian officials in the past week. As reported ref B, the Latvian political director was clear that "the PCA discussion was over" and the French were determined to go ahead with the negotiations. Latvia was hoping to get some discussion of what other steps the EU might take to balance out the resumption of PCA negotiations of response to continued Russian non-compliance with its commitments in Georgia. A follow up discussion with the political director later in the week indicated no change in Latvian position, but a concern that others in the EU were looking for ways to offer Russia carrots rather than sticks. ¶2. (C) We also discussed Medvedev's proposal for a new security structure for Europe with the MFA's head of security policy, Kaspars Ozolins, at his request (ref C). The Latvians share our concern that the proposal could be used to divide the EU and drive a wedge between us and Europe. FM Lavrov had told Latvian FM Riekstins in Moscow October 23 that the Russians were discussing their proposals bilaterally with us and the UK, Germany and France. The Latvians were grateful to know that we have had no serious, high level talks with Moscow on the issue, but are nervous by the other bilateral approaches. The Latvian fear is that Russians will plant a seed that a new system/architecture is needed and some Europeans, eager to please, will &do Russia's work for it8 and develop specific proposals while Russians sit back see what develops from the process they started. We should also leave it entirely for Russia to flesh out the plan with specifics, Ozolins said. He added that the most important thing is for Allies to be united in refusing to acknowledge that the current system is broken. If we can maintain unity on that point, it would be much harder for Russia to press its case. He said that allies should coordinate views on the basis of principals, starting with fulfillment of current commitments to European security such as CFE and full implementation of OSCE commitments. LARSON