OPEN SKIES: A GOOD MONTH FOR NOVEMBER, INCLUDING

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 USOSCE 000284

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR VCI/CCA, EUR/PRA, EUR/RPM, SCA/CEN
JCS FOR COL NORWOOD
OSD FOR ISA (PERENYI)
NSC FOR HAYES

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PARM PREL OSCE
SUBJECT: OPEN SKIES: A GOOD MONTH FOR NOVEMBER, INCLUDING
"ALTERNATE AIRFIELDS"

REF: MARVIN-WRIGHT EMAIL NOVEMBER 18


1. (SBU) Summary: The Open Skies Consultative Commission
(OSCC) plenary on November 24 agreed on a letter from the
OSCC Chairperson to the Ministerial Council summarizing the
past year. The Russian-chaired Working Group on Rules and
Procedures (IWGRP) agreed on a draft decision on "alternative
airfields." This is almost certain to be approved at the
OSCC plenary on December 15. Discussion continued on a
revision of cost distribution procedures in Decision One to
the Open Skies Treaty. End Summary.

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Plenary
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2. (SBU) During the November 24 OSCC plenary (Chaired by
Belarus-Krayushkin),there was agreement to forward the
Chair's letter (MC.GAL/6/08/Rev.1) reporting on the OSCC's
activities in 2008 to the Helsinki ministerial. (Comment:
This smooth work contrasts with the Joint Consultative Group
(JCG) which could not agree on a letter regarding its work on
the CFE Treaty from its chair to the ministerial, and the
OSCE's Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC),which is still
struggling with its annual report with how to characterize
the August war between Russia and Georgia. As has been the
case for several years running, the JCG's annual letter is
dead for this year; the FSC letter may remain open and go to
Helsinki with its fate decided there. End comment.)

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Next Meeting of Working Group on Sensors
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3. (SBU) The U.S. (Neighbour) announced that the next
meeting of the Informal Working Group on Sensors (IWGS) will
take place December 8 ) 12 in Vienna. He also read a letter
(OSCC.SEN/9/08)from IWGS Chair Scott Simmons (United States)
which requested that delegations review Simmons' latest
proposed Revision One to Decision 14 and prepare comments for
the December meeting.

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Russia on Recent Observation Missions
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4. (SBU) Russia (Kozlov) announced that it recently had
hosted two successful observation missions, one conducted by
Benelex and the other by the U.S.-Romania in a joint
observation flight onboard Romania's newly certified AN-30
aircraft. Russia also announced that it had completed three
active missions over Germany, France, and Spain. Russia also
had conducted a training flight over Germany. Kozlov noted
that all flights had been carried out within the spirit of
the Open Skies Treaty.

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Agreement in Working Group on "Alternate Airfields"
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5. (SBU) The Informal Working Group on Rules and Procedures
(IWGRP),chaired by Russia (Kozlov),met immediately
following the plenary. The most recent version of the draft
decision on alternate airfields (OSCC.RP/13/08/Rev.4) was
supported by Germany, the U.S., UK, Turkey, Sweden, and
Finland. The draft decision will be forwarded to the next
plenary on December 15 where formal adoption is almost
certain. (NOTE: After the IWGRP, the Slovak delegate
(Jancovic) who had taken the lead for NATO during the tedious
negotiations process and worked very effectively with the
Russians to get them to accept Allies' proposals, thanked
USDel for its constructive role during the drafting process.
The Russian Chairman (Kozlov) also expressed appreciation to
USDel for the constructive U.S. role. End note.)

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Progress on Cost Distribution ("Rev 5 to Decision 1")

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6. (SBU) Discussion continued on Revision Five of Decision
Number One to the Treaty on Open Skies
(OSCC.RP/17/08,Rev.3/Corr.1). Germany supported the text.
USDel (Wright),per ref email, said that it had submitted
drafting suggestions to the Chair that attempted to keep
"like" concepts/issues together, e.g., language referring to
transit flights under certain conditions be dealt with in
only one portion of the text and not scattered around the
document, observation flights under certain conditions be
dealt with in only one portion of the text, and so on.
Wright recommended that the second full paragraph, dealing
with transit flights, in section V, paragraph 13, be moved to
paragraph 11, which also deals with transit flights. Wright
also recommended that the last paragraph of section V,
paragraph 13 be made into a stand-alone paragraph because it
covered a separate issue. Slovakia (Jancovic) supported the
U.S. edits.


7. (SBU) Turkey (Ercan) suggested breaking section V,
paragraph 11 into two paragraphs so that the first half
dealing with transit flights and the second half dealing with
observation flights would become two distinct paragraphs.
The UK (Macleod) stated that the document was still under
review in capital, but would take note of the changes
proposed today. Macleod noted that the UK might have
additional minor edits. The Chair requested that Turkey and
Slovakia submit written recommendations and indicated that
the proposals may conflict with the proposed submission by
the U.S. delegation.

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Allies Seem To Be on the Same Page on Costs
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8. (SBU) After the IWGRP, the U.S., Turkish, and Slovakian
delegations discussed their recommendations, which were in
line with one another. They agreed that in the spirit of
keeping "like" with "like," paragraph 11 of section V should
be broken into two paragraphs, so that the first half of the
paragraph, dealing with transit flights, would become
paragraph 11 and the second half of the paragraph dealing
with observation flights would become paragraph 12. They
agreed that the language from paragraph 13 that USDel
suggested be moved to paragraph 11 should become its own
paragraph (i.e., paragraph 13) and follow paragraphs 11 and

12.


9. (SBU) Lastly, Turkey and Slovakia agreed with the U.S.
recommendation that the last paragraph of paragraph 13,
section V become its own paragraph (i.e., paragraph 16).
Slovakia (Jancovic) and Turkey (Ercan) said they had
discussed their proposals with the Chair (Kozlov) immediately
following the IWGRP and would not need to submit anything in
writing since they were now supporting the U.S. approach.
The Turkish delegation also expressed that the Russian
language (now suggested as paragraphs 13 and 16) was still
vague. USDel (Wright) agreed to follow up with the Chair to
indicate that the proposals did not seem to conflict.

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German Draft on Prolonging Work on Sensors
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10. (SBU) On the margins of the meetings, USDel (Neighbour)
shared with Germany (Ratzlaff) U.S. edits to the German draft
of a decision to prolong the work of the Informal Working
Group on Sensors (IWGS) into 2009. USDel (Neighbour and
Wright) discussed with the UK (Macleod) the need to prod the
group along in a productive way, so that extending the
mandate did not become routine practice. Macleod agreed with
the need to "give the process a little more urgency," and
suggested building in a reporting requirement after 6 months
that might create an incentive for the IWGS to be more
efficient. Germany (Ratzlaff) told USDel that he thought
there was still time to consider the draft decision, which he

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believed did not have to be approved at the December plenary,
but could wait until January.

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Next Meeting
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11. (SBU) The next OSCC plenary and the last under Belarus
chairmanship will take place on December 15. The next IWGRP
will meet on December 8 at 10:00 a.m. prior to the first
session of the IWGS, which will convene at 11:00 a.m. on the
same day. Belgium assumes the chairmanship in 2009.
Although Belgium has yet to propose a schedule of meetings
for the winter session, the first OSCC for 2009 probably will
be on/about Monday, January 26.
FINLEY