ESTONIA ON SECURITY SUPPORT FOR 2009 AFGHANISTAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L TALLINN 000440 SIPDIS FOR EUR/NB-MIGUEL RODRIGUES, EUR/RPM AARON COPE, SCA/A NISHA SINGH E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/29/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL MARR MOPS NATO AF EN SUBJECT: ESTONIA ON SECURITY SUPPORT FOR 2009 AFGHANISTAN ELECTIONS Classified By: CDA Karen Decker for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d). REF: STATE 131480 ¶1. (C) On December 23, Poloff met with Lauri Abel, Deputy Director of Operations and Crisis Management and Liis Jemmer, Policy Planning Advisor, at the Estonian Ministry of Defense (MOD) to discuss the points in reftel. Jemmer and Abel indicated that the Government of Estonia (GOE) has not reached a decision yet concerning contributions to the ISAF elections monitoring team in Afghanistan, but internal discussions are taking place to see what Estonia can contribute. Jemmer was frank in her assessment that as Estonian resources are already spread quite thin, it is unlikely a GOE contribution would extend beyond a "small niche capability." Jemmer indicated that the MOD hopes to have a clearer idea of what the GOE will be able to contribute at the NATO force generation conference on January 14. DECKER