COSTA RICA -- DEMARCHE ON LEADERS, MEETING ON

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 000687 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EEB, PLEASE PASS TO USTR:AMALITO/DOLIVER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: CS ECON EFTA ETRD PGOV PREL UNGA SUBJECT: COSTA RICA -- DEMARCHE ON LEADERS, MEETING ON TRADE AND PROSPERITY REF: A. REF A) STATE 87631 ¶B. B) STATE 87699 (NOTAL) ¶1. (SBU) During a meeting with FM Bruno Stagno on August 19, Ambassador Cianchette personally invited the GOCR to participate in the September 24 leaders, meeting on trade and prosperity in New York. Stagno stated that the GOCR plan was for President Oscar Arias, Minister of Foreign Trade (COMEX) Marco Vinicio Ruiz, Costa Rican Ambassador to Washington Tomas Duenas, and Stagno to attend. Stagno hoped the summit would take place in the morning, to accommodate President Arias, address to the UNGA that afternoon. ¶2. (SBU) Separately, Poloffs and Econoff also delivered Ref A demarche to relevant staff-level contacts at the MFA and COMEX. In addition, we provided the Costa Rican Embassy in Washington with the demarche documentation including the non-paper on the Alliance for Growth and Prosperity concept. Our interlocutors all expressed interest in commenting, but asked for a few more days to respond. ¶3. (SBU) COMMENT: Stagno has supported the Leaders, Meeting idea since we first broached it, and the GOCR is proposing a heavyweight delegation. This suggests that the GOCR will be an engaged and (hopefully) helpful participant. We are also pleased that the idea of a special CAFTA-DR event for Costa Rica seems to have been discarded (Ref B). Stagno and none of our other interlocutors raised it. We will forward any additional information or reaction to the AGP proposal that we glean. END COMMENT. ¶4. (U) ACTION REQUEST: Please advise timing/venue details for the summit as soon as available. Other leaders may also have schedule issues to consider on September 24. CIANCHETTE