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