AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD MEETS WITH CHINESE PERMREP

S E C R E T USUN NEW YORK 000834 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/16/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV CH BM SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD MEETS WITH CHINESE PERMREP WANG; DISCUSSES KOSOVO, BURMA, UN REFORM Classified By: AMBASSADOR ZALMAY KHALILZAD, FOR REASONS 1.4 B/D ¶1. (S) Summary: Ambassador Khalilzad met with Chinese PermRep Guangya Wang on September 16. On Kosovo, Wang said the Serbian request to seek an ICJ advisory opinion was a clever idea, and one that the U.S. should support. On Burma, Wang agreed that nothing concrete had been achieved by the UN,s good offices mission, but he argued that change in Burma will be evolutionary, not rapid. Wang said China,s Prime Minister would address the September 24th High-Level Event on Millenium Development Goals. He also said China was focusing more on UN budget processes, given that it is the ninth largest contributor to the UN. End summary. KOSOVO/ICJ ¶2. (S) Wang said the Serb request to seek an ICJ advisory opinion was a clever, face-saving idea. It would likely take years for the ICJ to act, and the judges would understand the political ramifications. He added that both China and the U.S. had judges on the panel, which gives both countries more influence. By the time the ICJ renders a decision, Serbia and the region would be well on their way to EU accession and the issue of Kosovo would be less inflammatory. Wang urged the U.S. to reconsider its opposition. BURMA ¶3. (S) Wang agreed that nothing has been achieved by the UN,s Burma good offices mission. He said the Burmese were a "very stubborn people" and China was very frustrated with them as well. Regarding SYG Ban,s proposal for an Asian to replace Special Envoy Gambari, Wang did not believe this would be an improvement. He said history shows that the Burmese don,t listen to anyone. Gambari's predecessor was Malaysian, and he was no more successful. Separately, the proposed China/Indonesia/India Ministerial on Burma will not occur, said Wang, because India decided not to participate. The group will continue to informally work with the Burmese regime, but at a lower level. Wang argued that the focus on Burma should be on getting the military out of politics after the upcoming elections. However, he insisted that any change in Burma would have to be evolutionary, not rapid. He did not offer any proposals for influencing the conduct of the elections. MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS ¶4. (S) Wang said the Millenium Development Goals were lagging, and the High-Level event would be a wake up call. SYG Ban asked the Chinese Prime Minister to speak because of China,s experience in overcoming development challenges, and because of the assistance it has provided to many African countries. Wang said the PM would 1) announce 30 million USD in further food assistance to Africa; 2) announce an increase in Chinese development projects; and 3) discuss the importance of debt elimination and reduction of tariffs. UN MANAGEMENT REFORM AND BUDGET ¶5. (S) Regarding China,s decision to block consensus on a UNDP/UNFPA Board decision about accountability, Wang said China is torn between two imperatives: the need for donors to have access to audits and the need for aid recipient countries to have their sensitive information safeguarded. Wang directed his staff to work with other management reform experts to solve this issue. On the UN budget, Wang agreed that reform is needed. The UN invariably budgets for the most expensive option, not the least expensive. China is the ninth largest contributor, and its contributions are increasing; it needs to weigh in more on budget matters. Khalilzad