DEMARCHE REQUEST: FR MUST NOT BLOCK NATO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 STATE 091387

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/25/2018
TAGS: EUN NATO PREL
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE REQUEST: FR MUST NOT BLOCK NATO
COUNTER-PIRACY DISCUSSION

REF: A. REF A: USEU 1139

B. REF B: USEU 1300

C. REF C: NAIROBI 2021

D. REF D: STATE 78367

Classified By: EUR/RPM DIR BRUCE TURNER FOR REASONS 1.4 (b) AND (d)


1. (U) This is an action request; please see paragraph 4.


2. (C) With respect to UNSCR 1816 and increasing acts of
piracy off the Horn of Africa, Washington requests that
USNATO raise the possibility of a NATO counter-piracy role
at the August 27 North Atlantic Council (NAC) meeting,
and in advance with supportive Allies in Brussels, and
propose tasking NATO Military Authorities (NMAs) for
advice (including but not limited to possible roles for
the Standing NATO Maritime Group,s planned October transit
of the relevant area). In advance of the NAC, Washington
requests Embassy Paris and Embassy Madrid demarche the GOF
and GOS to support this discussion and to allow the NAC
to task the NMAs to review options to respond to this
emerging security threat to Allies. Embassies Paris and
Madrid should make clear the USG welcomes current French
and Spanish national efforts in the Horn of Africa.
While we would welcome any potential ESDP mission, the
USG is concerned that it not draw from NATO or Operation
Enduring Freedom assets, or be used to preclude a NATO
role if NATO so decides. In that regard, we believe it
urgently important that the EU and NATO share information
and consider what the other may be doing in order to ensure
transparency and prevent duplication.


3. (C) Finally, Posts should emphasize that Washington
views the positive steps President Bush and President
Sarkozy made with respect to NATO-EU cooperation at
Bucharest as signaling a new era of transparency and
coordination. In this spirit, members of neither
organization should block necessary discussion in the other.


4. (C) Please deliver by COB Tuesday, August 26, and
report on response by email. Points of contact are
Peter Chisholm and Laura Lucas in EUR/RPM, and please
copy Alejandro Baez and Jeffrey Workman at USNATO and
Apar Sidhu at USEU.


5. (C) Background: In the past month or more, French
and EU officials have approached USEU to inform the USG
of possible EU anti-piracy operations off the Horn of
Africa under UNSCR 1816. The EU Political and Security
Committee (PSC) tasked the EU Military Staff with exploring
options for such a mission and reporting back by September
2 (REFs A, B). French and EU officials have requested
nonspecific direct bilateral cooperation between such an
EU force and the United States via our assets in CTF-150,
a coalition counter-terrorism naval force that supports
Operation Enduring Freedom. Such U.S. bilateral military
cooperation with an ESDP mission would be counter to stated
U.S. policy that when the U.S. cooperates with Europe on
defense and security matters, we prefer to do so through
NATO.


6. (C) We note that on August 22, CTF-150 deployed three
U.S. and four coalition ships on a mission to track several
pirate ships off the Horn of Africa in the wake of a series
of attacks on August 21 (REF C). Earlier and of particular
concern, on August 7, Canada already had diverted, by
national decision, a ship previously committed to the
Standing NATO Maritime Group, to take up escort duties for
World Food Program ships threatened by pirates as they
deliver food into Somalia in support of the UNSCR.


7. (C) Given the threat of piracy to NATO Allies, the
current use of NATO and coalition assets in national
counter-piracy missions, and the likely further peeling off
of the same assets for an ESDP mission, Washington believes
that it is critical that NATO members task the NMAs to
review options for NATO response to piracy, and to consult
with the EU on its planning already near completion.

STATE 00091387 002 OF 002


NATO is a logical venue for European (including EU),
Canadian, and other Alliance Partner nations to discuss
cooperation and deconfliction of current and potential
national, coalition, Allied, and/or EU missions.


8. (C) After waiting several weeks after initial
socialization of the issue to give Paris and Madrid time
to appreciate U.S. views of NATO equities, the U.S. will
raise a tasking to NMAs in the August 27 NAC.


9. (U) Talking points:

-- The U.S. Mission to NATO plans to raise the increasing
threat to Allies of piracy in the Horn of Africa at the
North Atlantic Council meeting on Wednesday August 27.
The U.S. will ask that the NAC task the NMAs with reviewing
possible NATO counter-piracy responses.

-- It is clear that counter-piracy missions already involve
a significant number of NATO Allies, given that Standing
NATO Maritime Group 2 will be in the area on a training
mission throughout much of the fall and that Allied members
are diverting assets previously committed to this NATO Group,
or committing assets from other coalition forces in the area,
specifically CTF-150, to perform national counter-piracy
missions and a potential ESDP mission in December.

-- The United States is keen to work with Allies and EU
partners to pursue greater security cooperation as
effectively as possible, including potential counter-piracy
efforts. As you know, our preference is to work together
through NATO when we cooperate with Europe on security and
defense issues.

-- The U.S. understands that there are instances when the
EU will decide to conduct its own operations where NATO
is not engaged, such as the current Chad ESDP Mission.
In instances in which NATO has not yet made a decision to
be engaged, however, Allies should not block discussion
of possible NATO action simply because the EU is already
involved. In any situation where the U.S. may potentially
be involved, we will continue to prefer to define that
interaction with the EU in and through NATO.

-- There is a single pool of capabilities of all kinds for
crises where NATO, the EU, or both may be involved.
Therefore, cooperation is a natural imperative.

-- The U.S. is not a member of the EU; NATO offers a forum
where we can sit at the same table with our European Allies
on an equal footing. We believe that our European Allies
recognize the political and practical capabilities that we
contribute. There are also compelling practical military
operational reasons for using NATO.

-- More general NATO-EU talking points can be found in REF D.
RICE