RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE: SUPPORTING AMENDMENT OF THE

C O N F I D E N T I A L WARSAW 001069 SIPDIS EUR/CE FOR MORRIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/15/2018 TAGS: NATO PREL MOPS MARR AF PL SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE: SUPPORTING AMENDMENT OF THE ISAF OPLAN TO EXPAND CN AUTHORITIES REF: SECSTATE 97395 Classified By: Political Counselor F. Daniel Sainz for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary. GOP will consider guarded support for amendment of the ISAF oplan to expand CN authorities, provided actions resulting from amendment do not have a negative impact on safety of Polish troops. However, the Poles believe that the priority should be training Afghans to take on their appropriate responsibilities. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Poloff delivered reftel demarche to Jacek Januchowski of the MFA Security Policy Department. Januchowski said that Poland agreed with the U.S. on the link between illegal narcotics and terrorist insurgency. He said the GOP also agrees that CN is primarily the task of the Afghan government, particularly the police. Therefore, Januchowski said Poland should do everything it can to train the Afghans to be more active. There was still room for improvement on sharing intelligence and other information on narcotics trafficking. Januchowski said that the Polish Chief of Defense (CHOD) had just been briefed at a conference in Sofia on operational specifics of CN challenges in Afghanistan, and that the Chief of Staff had received a similar briefing at the Military Council (MC) in Brussels. ¶3. (C) Januchowski said the Polish military would consider whether it should be more active with destruction of narcotics related facilities -- but not with crop eradication -- when Afghan authorities could not take the necessary actions themselves. But in considering greater CN involvement, Polish military leadership had to guarantee safety for the troops on the principle of "safety first." Januchowski said he thought there were limited crops and installations in Ghazny Province, where Polish forces are going to be concentrated. But he said that the Kabul - Kandahar Road was heavily used by traffickers, and Polish forces would have to confront this issue when they had responsibility for patrolling this road. ¶4. (C) Januchowski said that the Polish Ambassador had supported a similar US/UK position at the June North Atlantic Council, and that Poland was close to the U.S. on this issue. He said that Poland was willing to review the oplan, although France, Germany, and Italy were not. He promised to pass reftel points to the General Staff to address the bottling of the issue in the MC, and also to the Polish Ambassador in Brussels. ASHE