CWC: WRAP-UP FOR TWO WEEKS ENDING JULY 25, 2008

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 000644 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR ISN/CB, VCI/CCA, L/NPV, IO/MPR, SECDEF FOR OSD/GSA/CN,CP> JOINT STAFF FOR DD PMA-A FOR WTC COMMERCE FOR BIS (ROBERTS) NSC FOR FLY WINPAC FOR WALTER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PARM PREL CWC SUBJECT: CWC: WRAP-UP FOR TWO WEEKS ENDING JULY 25, 2008 REF: THE HAGUE 609 This is CWC-33-08 -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (U) Meetings at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have ground to a standstill for the summer holidays. The delegation hosted IO/MPR's Lynette Podolsky on July 14-15 to look into recruitment and staffing issues for American citizen employees at the OPCW. The new facilitator for Article VII implementation called a meeting on short notice July 15 to solicit views from delegates before they disappear on vacation. Also on July 15, the Director of International Cooperation and Assistance, Kalimi Mworia, and the Dutch Ambassador held a meeting on the Program for Africa, attended by more donors than African States Parties. -------------- IO/MPR VISIT -------------- ¶2. (U) On July 14 and 15, Lynette Podolsky (IO/MPR) visited The Hague to discuss hiring of U.S. citizens by international organizations, including the OPCW's Technical Secretariat (TS). She and Delrep met with Ron Nelson (Director, Administration) and Sherrin Hill (Recruitment Officer) to discuss recruitment and staffing issues. Nelson and Hill explained the OPCW recruitment process. They also provided updated information on the number of U.S. citizens working in the TS. Nelson and Hill noted that the OPCW receives a lower number of applications from the U.S. compared to other countries, and they suggested raising awareness of OPCW jobs among potentially-qualified applicants through circulating vacancy notices to Designated Labs, Chemical Weapons destruction and storage facilities. ¶3. (U) Podolsky and Delrep also met separately with Bill Kane (Head, Industry Verification) and Michael Luhan (Head, Media and Public Relations) to discuss their experiences with the recruitment process and working in the TS. Podolsky was particularly interested in ideas on where IO/MPR could focus recruitment efforts for OPCW jobs. Kane suggested reaching out to industry organizations as well as professional publications for chemists and chemical engineers. ¶4. (SBU) The Del hosted an informal round table for other U.S. citizen TS staff to meet Podolsky and Delreps. Four professional-level staff participated; participants included two recently-hired staff (from the Verification and the Inspectorate divisions) and two more veteran staff (from the Inspectorate and Administration divisions). All four candidly shared their views about the recruitment process -- including frustration at the process's length (six to nine months) and the apparent advantages given to "national candidates" -- and working at the TS. The two newer staff expressed concern about the lack of support offered by the TS in relocating and adjusting to life in The Hague. The four participants (as well as many of the other U.S. citizen staff who had been contacted but were unable to attend the meeting) all expressed interest in having more regular interaction with the Del and supported holding future round tables or brown bag lunches. -------------- ARTICLE VII CONSULTATIONS -------------- ¶5. (U) On July 15, the new facilitator for Article VII, Said Moussi (Algeria) chaired his first consultation unexpectedly. While the TS did not make a formal briefing on the status of Article VII implementation, Legal Advisor Santiago Onate was on hand to answer delegations' questions. Moussi said in his opening remarks that he wanted to hear delegations' views on how to proceed with continuing to implement the Article VII action plan (C- 8/DEC.16). ¶6. (U) The South African delegate said that African States Parties have made a lot of progress in Article VII implementation since the last Conference of State Parties (CSP). However, more assistance, especially with preparing legislation, is needed for States Parties to fully implement their Article VII obligations. He suggested that those States Parties which have successfully completed the process could assist other States Parties regionally or sub- regionally. Italy indicated its readiness to provide assistance but stressed the need for States Parties to be willing to receive assistance and to fulfill their obligations. The French representative said that the performance indicators in the draft 2009 budget give a good basis for supporting the Article VII action plan and should be incorporated into any possible decision to be adopted during the next CSP. ¶7. (U) Delrep asked for the Legal Advisor to provide his views on the current TS program of support, specifically what is and is not working. Delrep also raised the possibility of OPCW partnering with regional organizations. Onate provided a detail response, predicated on his acceptance of the evaluation made by the Second Review Conference (RevCon) on Article VII implementation. Referring to the good progress in Article VII implementation since the action plan was adopted in 2004 and drawing a parallel to Universality efforts, Onate said that only the most difficult cases have yet to start implementing their Article VII obligations. He said that there needs to be a better understanding and diagnosis of the problems States Parties encounter; the TS currently sends questionnaires to National Authorities, but these do not often elicit concrete responses. ¶8. (U) Onate said that while the TS is limited to interacting with National Authorities, they do not usually have the political keys to push legislation. Focusing on legislators and political leaders is most effective, and Onate described efforts to engage the Inter-parliamentary Union as somewhat successful. He noted that the TS could benefit from the support of States Parties pushing Article VII implementation on a bilateral basis with governments. ¶9. (U) Onate shared his view that large regional meetings are of limited value, saying that the TS has found a targeted, tailor-made approach to be most effective. He reported that the Netherlands will be funding a technical assistance visit to Sierra Leone in the near future and that a similar trip is being planned for Guinea. However, Onate stressed the need for follow-up contact and said again that States Parties with resident diplomatic missions can be more effective than the TS in this regard. ¶10. (U) Following up on Onate's comments, the Russian delegate suggested that the next TS report on Article VII implementation should include a table showing the different needs of States Parties. This would help States Parties to determine how they can best focus their assistance. In response to a German question about the need for high-level political contact between the OPCW and non-compliant States Parties, Onate reported that Amb. Oksana Tomova (Slovakia, Executive Council Chair) recently sent letters to States Parties as outlined in recent CSP decisions (C-10/DEC.16 and C-12/DEC.9). ¶11. (U) The French delegate suggested that regional "champions" might be designated to support the TS and assist neighboring States Parties. She also suggested that States Parties could assist the TS in advance of visits to States Parties through providing contacts or other support as needed. ¶12. (U) The Iranian delegate stated that more work has been done on implementing Article VII than any other article of the Convention and stressed the need to implement all of the Convention, specifically citing articles I and XI. Despite Onate's statement that the TS sees Article VII as encompassing all of the Convention's provisions, the Iranian insisted that his government would not accept stressing Article VII while ignoring Article XI obligations. -------------- PROGRAM FOR AFRICA BRIEFING -------------- ¶13. (U) On July 15, Amb. Maarten Lak (Netherlands) and Kalimi Mworia (Director, International Cooperation and Assistance (ICA)) held a meeting to discuss the Program for Africa. The heads of the ICA's three branches each presented ideas on how their activities could support the Program for Africa. In addition to four African delegations (Algeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Sudan),a number of current and potential donors (including a number of WEOG delegations, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, India, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia) attended the meeting by invitation. ¶14. (U) Amb. Lak announced that the Netherlands, in addition to sponsoring a technical assistance visit to Sierra Leone (as reported in the Article VII consultation above),will provide funding for a workshop for customs officials this year and possibly in 2009. He also said that the Netherlands will focus its annual voluntary contribution (between 80,000 and 100,000 euro) to programs in the International Cooperation and Implementation Support branches. ¶15. (U) China said that it is ready to provide assistance as possible. It noted the possibility of donating computers made by Chinese manufacturers as well as sponsoring a laboratory program for African States Parties at the Designated Lab in Beijing. India also noted that it will be providing an industrial placement through this year's Associate Program. Finland announced that the Finnish Institute for the Verification of the CWC (VERIFIN) was providing training in analytical chemistry for South Africa. ¶16. (SBU) A number of delegations spoke in support of expanding the National Authorities meeting before the CSP from one day to two or three days. Magda Bauta (Head, Implementation Support) gave an overview of the structure of the annual National Authorities meeting and was hesitant to change what she referred to as a "finely-tuned" apparatus. ¶17. (U) Beik sends. Gallagher