READOUT: 22 OCTOBER NORTH ATLANTIC COUNCIL MEETING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 USNATO 000394 NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2018 TAGS: NATO PREL AF SUBJECT: READOUT: 22 OCTOBER NORTH ATLANTIC COUNCIL MEETING Classified By: Classified by Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Walter Scot t Reid for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C/NF) Summary from the NAC Meeting: -- AFGHANISTAN: The SYG announced he would soon provide a new strategic communications plan for Afghanistan since there were too many NATO persons doing interviews, and doing them badly, over the last few weeks. The SYG also said he would convene a small group of the most interested nations next week to try to resolve the impasse over SACEUR,s request to deploy NATO AWACS to Afghanistan. SHAPE,s Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, MG Wright, cited a slight increase in OMF activity compared to last week. Germany,s PermRep announced the Bundestag extended the ISAF mandate for 14 more months so that renewal would not interfere with national elections next year. -- BALKANS: The SYG, MG Wright, and Deputy Chairman of the Military Committee Lieutenant General Eikenberry stressed the need for Allies to provide funds and personnel for KFOR to stand up the Kosovo Security Force (KSF). -- AFRICA: Support to the AU: The NAC agreed to an African Union (AU) request for a naval escort for a vessel carrying military supplies for the Burundian AMISOM battalion in Mogadishu. The SYG placed proposed Rules of Engagement regarding piracy for Standing NATO Maritime Group 2,s (SNMG 2) deployment off the Horn of Africa under silence in the NAC until 1000 local time, 23 October (it later passed silence). -- IRAQ: No discussion -- NOISE MITIGATION MEASURES AT GEILENKIRCHEN: Air Commander Whittingham detailed the current state of play of noise mitigation measures taken at NATO,s AWACS airbase in Geilenkirchen. Ambassador Volker surfaced related concerns about Dutch opposition in the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Program Management Organization (NAMPO) to mandatory upgrades necessary for AWACS to meet regulation and continue flying. -- RESPONSE TO TERRORISM: No discussion -- STATEMENTS ON POLITICAL TOPICS: France briefed on EU activity, specifically the EU-Canada summit, the recent &International Forum on Challenges Relating to Peacekeeping Operations8 and EU activity on the Georgian conflict. Slovenia noted its financial support toward the international trust fund to respond to the Georgian request for dealing with the unexploded ordnances remaining from the August crisis. Norway requested additional information about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mullen,s meeting with his Russian counterpart in Helsinki. The SYG announced his intention to begin, starting with next week,s NAC, a regular discussion on the road map on NATO transformation. --AOB: Amb. Volker announced on behalf of the U.S., as depositary for the Washington Treaty, that Hungary has deposited its accession protocol for Albania and Croatia to the State Department. Croatia and Albania expressed gratitude to Romania and Poland for the completion of parliamentary processes to approve Albanian and Croatian accession to NATO and encouraged remaining Allies to follow suit. END SUMMARY. -------------- Afghanistan -------------- ¶2. (C/NF) Afghanistan: The SYG noted Afghan Parliamentary approval of 3 of the 4 newly appointed Cabinet ministers, the most significant of which he believed was new Minister of Interior Atmar. Atmar will be important to the future of the Afghan National Police and the Ministry of Interior as a USNATO 00000394 002 OF 004 whole, he said. The SYG raised the lack of progress regarding SACEURs request to deploy NATO,s Airborne Early Warning & Control (NAEWC) Force to ISAF. Nations agree there is a valid operational requirement for NAEWC to support ISAF but disagree on funding, he said. The SYG plans to bring a small group of most concerned nations to a discussion next week to determine what can be done to break the deadlock. Finally, SYG expressed displeasure in the state of strategic communications within NATO. He was not happy with NATO personnel, especially senior level military personnel, providing press interviews which lack consistency. He plans to present a new strategic communications plan during PermReps, informal meetings next week. ¶3. C/NF) Operational Update by SHAPE DCOS/OPS: MG Wright cited a slight increase in OMF activity compared to last week. He commented that phase one of voter registration is going well and phase two will begin on 5 Nov 2008. SHAPE assesses that OMF incidents against voter registration, if any, will vary from location to location. Overall, OMF activity is expected to drop in late November. MG Wright also provided an overview of Operation TOLO, which is the framework operation for ISAF through spring 2009. Operation TOLO will shift focus to security of the ring road and feeder roads to ensure freedom of movement. He also commented that phase two of the Kabul Province Transfer of Lead Security occurred on 20 October. ANSF is now responsible for the northern part of Kabul Province as well as Kabul city. Lastly, he updated the NAC on the status of the ANA Transportation Trust Fund. In the fund there is 100,000 and 4 hours of strategic airlift interim solution (SALIS) flight time. This leaves of deficit of 2.45 million for movement of equipment already donated. ¶4. (C/NF) Deputy Chairman of the Military Committee Lt. Gen. Eikenberry reminded the NAC of discussions at the Budapest Defense Ministerial in which Ministers stressed the need to help in developing the Afghan National Police (ANP). The Military Committee has tasked SHAPE with determining what more NATO could do to aid the ANP development process both within the context of the OPLAN and in addition to current OPLAN guidance. He closed by calling for a seamless approach to building both the ANA and ANP, telling PermReps that NATO must look at this as development of the Afghan National Security Force as a whole ¶5. (C/NF) PermRep Comments: The Dutch PermRep quoted a recent press article stating, &NATO should be careful not to reach beyond its grasp.8 He recommended that for future operations NATO ensure it has the capacity and the political will prior to committing our forces. To do so, he suggested NATO better define the mission prior to commitment and cited a possible NATO decision on supporting the ANP as an example. ¶6. (C/NF) The German PermRep announced the Bundestag extension of the ISAF mandate for another 14 months to allow national elections to occur before debating mandate renewal again. The new mandate increases the ceiling for German forces to 4,500 troops in support of ISAF. ¶7. (C/NF) The Czech Republic reported that his government has donated 50,000 to the ANA Transportation Trust Fund. He thanked Italy and Greece for their donations and once again challenged the Alliance to donate more money to the fund. ¶8. (C/NF) Balkans: The SYG stressed the need for Allies to fund KFOR,s new tasks of demobilizing the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) and standing up the Kosovo Security Force (KSF). The SYG said NATO had received the first indications of substantial future pledges to the KSF trust fund and would return to this issue next week. MG Wright briefed that the KPC demobilization fund has need of at least 43,000 euros in addition to the 2.4 million euros on hand to meet payments due at the end of October. The KSF fund still has only 312,000 euros on hand; 1.3 million euros is needed by 7 USNATO 00000394 003 OF 004 November and 11.97 million euros by 1 December. ¶9. (C/NF) MG Wright said that the lack of new offers to man the Military Civilian Advisory Team (MCAD) was problematic as the MCAD was attempting to execute KFOR,s new tasks at only 61 percent strength. Deputy Chairman of the Military Committee Lieutenant General Eikenberry stressed that the lack of resources and personnel for the new tasks was making it difficult to carry out this mission; could undermine Kosovar confidence in NATO,s commitment; and, if the KSF stand-up was delayed, could affect negatively KFOR,s ability to reduce force levels in the future. In response to a query by the UK PermRep, MG Wright stated that KFOR was exploring staffing MCAD shortfalls with personnel from KFOR headquarters or SHAPE. -------------- Africa -------------- ¶10. (C/NF) Africa: The SYG highlighted two documents relating to counter-piracy off the Horn of Africa: SG(2008)0792 (INV),passing on a request from the African Union for a NATO military escort for the M/V Rosen, carrying military equipment for the Burundian AMISOM battalion in Mogadishu; and SG(2008)0795 (INV),proposing that the Council agree to military advice outlining Rules of Engagement for SNMG 2 on piracy. ¶11. (C/NF) The AU request was agreed to around the table, while the ROE advice was placed under a short silence procedure until 1000 Brussels time on 23 October. After a short briefing from SHAPE on the tasks to be undertaken by SNMG 2, several PermReps spoke in support of the ROE advice. The Turkish PermRep laid down a marker on Berlin Plus, however, saying that future contacts between NATO and the EU regarding counter-piracy operations would require approval by the NAC; until such approval was granted, all NATO-EU military cooperation should be undertaken within the framework of Berlin Plus. ¶12. (C/NF) Iraq: no discussion -------------- Noise Mitigation Measures at Geilenkirchen -------------- ¶13. (C/NF) Noise Mitigation Measures at Geilenkirchen: Air Commodore Whittingham, Deputy Commander of the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control (NAEW&C),briefed on efforts made to address complaints about noise from the operations of NATO AWACS at Geilenkirchen air base and Dutch government requests for action. Efforts include reducing cargo flights and other movements, dispersing flight training to other nations, and updating a flight simulator so as to reduce the number of training flights. Despite these measures, NATO AWACS continue to face pressure from the Dutch parliament to set new ceilings for flights over the Netherlands. Ambassador Volker commended the noise mitigation efforts, but expressed concern about Dutch opposition in the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Program Management Organization (NAMPO) to mandatory upgrades necessary for AWACS to meet regulation and continue flying. The briefer reinforced the seriousness of this concern and the Dutch PermRep indicated that the Dutch government is &re-assessing8 their position on this issue. Poland restated an offer by the Polish Minister of Defense for the NATO AWCS to be based in Poland at Powidz airbase. ¶14. (C/NF) Response to Terrorism: No discussion -------------- Statements on Political Subjects -------------- ¶15. (C/NF) Statements on Political Subjects: Slovenia stated its support for the Georgian request for assistance from the USNATO 00000394 004 OF 004 Republic of Slovenia,s International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victim Assistance in dealing with unexploded ordnances remaining from the August crisis. Slovenia has earmarked 20,000 from the trust fund to establish an indigenous demining capacity within Georgia. ¶16. (C/NF) Norwegian Perm Rep Traavik called attention to an article reporting on Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mullen,s meeting with his Russian counterpart this week in Helsinki. The article noted that the two discussed NATO-Russia relations. The Norwegian PermRep felt that a briefing on the meeting would be of general interest to Allies and made that request to AMB Volker. The Ambassador noted it was a bilateral meeting, but said he would contact his colleagues in the Military Committee about providing a briefing to Allies. (Note: The German DHoM echoed this sentiment later on Wednesday in the Senior Political Committee discussion on a way ahead in NATO-Russia relations. End Note.) ¶17. (C/NF) The SYG announced that at next week,s NAC he would begin regular discussion on the road map on NATO transformation. Hungary, as co-author with the UK of a non-paper on NATO transformation, expressed appreciation for the decision by the SYG for more Council ownership and deeper involvement on this issue. He was concerned, however, about the timeline set out by the SYG in his road map, suggesting that much work would be pushed until after the December holidays when time would be short before the February informal Defense Ministers meeting in Poland. The UK also welcomed the initiation of regular discussion on transformation. -------------- Any Other Business -------------- ¶18. (C/NF) Any Other Business: Ambassador Volker announced on behalf of the U.S., as depositary for the Washington Treaty, that Hungary has deposited its accession protocol for Albania and Croatia to the State Department. Croatia and Albania expressed gratitude to Romania and Poland for the completion of parliamentary processes to approve Albanian and Croatian accession to NATO and encouraged remaining Allies to follow suit. REID