RUSSIANS PROVIDE EUROPEAN SECURITY PAPER TO EU-3

S E C R E T USNATO 000393



NOFORN

SIPDIS



E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2018

TAGS: NATO, PREL, GM, RS

SUBJECT: RUSSIANS PROVIDE EUROPEAN SECURITY PAPER TO EU-3



Classified By: CDA W.S. Reid for reasons 1.4 (b),(d).



1. (S/NF) The following document was provided to us

unofficially by a staffer in the Private Office of NATO

Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer (strictly protect).

According to the Private Office, the document was initially

provided by the Russians to the EU-3. Germany, in turn,

shared it with the Secretary General only. It is not in

circulation at NATO formally.



2. (S/NF) Commment: This document is more remarkable for how

it has been handled than for its content -- which is a rehash

of ideas we have seen from the Russians many times before.

The Dutch learned of the document's existence and informed

the SYG, per Private Office sources. He asked the U.S. to

provide it to him after a request to Germany confirmed the

document's existence, but also a refusal to share it with

him. When we told him we did not have a copy, he doubted our

answer and went back to the Germans. At that point the

Germans briefed De Hoop Scheffer on the document, but they

still refused to give him a copy. They did tell him,

however, that three other Allies had it. He took this to

mean that it was a Quad document, an impression of which

Germany did not disabuse him. When Germany refused to give

it to him, he once again asked us for it. When we repeated

that we did not have such a paper, he reportedly expressed

doubts about our answer, believing that we were deliberately

holding out on him. As a result, he went back to the Germans

a third time, who finally admitted the true source of the

document. They also eventually provided him a copy of the

paper, we understand. End Comment



3. (C/NF) The text of the Russian-drafted European Security

Paper follows below:



UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION



Such Treaty should create in the Euro-Atlantic area a

reliable collective security system that would provide for

equal security of all States, stipulate in a legally binding

manner the foundations of the interaction between its Signing

Parties - States as well as international organizations -

with the goal of strengthening peace, enhancing stability and

providing for security in Europe and in the world as a whole.



Key thematic elements of such a Treaty:



-- Basic principles of relations between States, including

adherence to the implementation in good faith of obligations

under international law; respect for the sovereignty,

territorial integrity, political independence and unity of

States; inviolability of frontiers, possibility of their

change only in accordance with international law, by peaceful

means and by agreement; non-interference into internal

affairs.



-- Reaffirmation of the principle of inadmissibility of the

use of force or threat of use of force in international

relations in any manner inconsistent with the Charter of the

United Nations.



-- Unified approaches in the Euro-Atlantic area to the

peaceful settlement of conflicts with the particular emphasis

on the priority of negotiated solutions based on the due

consideration of the positions of the parties and respect to

the existing international negotiating and peacekeeping

mechanisms.



-- Obligations of all States and international organizations

not to maintain their own security at the detriment to the

security of others, to observe the principles of equal and

indivisible security.



-- Reaffirmation that no State or international organization

in the Euro-Atlantic area is vested with primary

responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and

stability in this region or a right to consider any part of

it as an area of their exclusive influence.



-- Basic principles of arms control regime in Europe,

confidence and security building, restraint and reasonable

sufficiency in the military development in the Euro-Atlantic

area.



-- New quality of cooperation as to counteracting new threats

and challenges, such as, for example, WMD proliferation,

terrorism, violent separatism, drug trafficking and other

kinds of transnational crime.



-- Affirmation that all States in the Euro-Atlantic area

would not allow, in the framework of any military union,

organization or coalition, any actions undermining the unity

of the Euro-Atlantic security space and that the evolution of

such military unions, organizations or coalitions would be

carried out, inter alia, on the basis of respect of security

interests of every participating State of this Treaty.

REID