KAZAKHSTAN: FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO OSCE ENGAGES,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 000498 SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EUR/RPM, EUR/RUS, DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/20/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM SENV OSCE KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO OSCE ENGAGES, WITH A SOUPCON OF SKEPTICISM REF: ASTANA 0450 Classified By: Ambassador Richard E. Hoagland: 1.4 (B),(D) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: French Ambassador to the OSCE Eric Lebedel briefed a select group of Western Ambassadors on March 19 that he was in Astana to promote the European Union's perspective on the OSCE and to emphasize Kazakhstan's need to take seriously its responsibilities on democracy, human rights, and rule of law. After extended debate about to what degree Kazakhstan is committed to these ideals, and after lively but not always optimally informed discussion of "environmental security" as an appropriate goal for Kazakhstan's 2010 OSCE Chairmanship, the group reached consensus that it is important to understand Kazakhstan's complicated ground realities as it seeks to move along a trajectory toward international principles of democracy and human rights. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) OSCE Head of Mission to Kazakhstan Alexandre Keltchewsky hosted a working lunch on March 19 in Astana for French PermRep to the OSCE Ambassador Eric Lebedel. Ambassadors of the UK, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, and the Czech Republic attended. THE EU FACTOR IN THE OSCE ¶3. (SBU) Ambassador Lebedel explained he was in Astana for a dual purpose: 1) to deliver a four-day series of lectures at the Kazakhstani Diplomatic Academy on the OSCE and the central role of the European Union (EU) in the OSCE, and 2) to engage with Kazakhstani officials on the importance of the EU view within the OSCE. The Czech Ambassador whispered an aside that he thought his country currently represented the EU. Lebedel said he came to Astana with four concrete messages: 1) to emphasize the EU factor in the OSCE, which Kazakhstan "does not seem to appreciate"; 2) to urge Kazakhstan to be vigilant in the field of human rights and to emphasize the importance of Kazakhstan implementing its human-dimension commitments before assuming the 2010 OSCE Chairmanship; 3) to impress on Kazakhstan the importance of the OSCE second dimension on environmental security and the role Kazakhstan should play in the OSCE to promote preventative diplomacy on environmental issues; and 4) to promote the future of European security and the "enduring European desire for a broader global view of security." NEW EURASIAN SECURITY ARCHITECTURE ¶4. (C) Lebedel's interlocutors around the table noted that Russia has made clear that it intends to promote a new view of Eurasian security within the OSCE but that, so far, Moscow's concept of the new security architecture remains ill-defined. Lebedel said that the EU wants to ensure that any new Eurasian security architecture includes "fundamental principles" and enshrines human rights as the sine-qua-non of any new understanding of "security" in Eurasia. He worried that Russia, within the OSCE, will promote a "hard view" of security, rather than a "soft role," that will seek to incorporate an "emerging emphasis" on the role of the Commonwealth Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and its recently announced Rapid Reaction Force, as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Lebedel briefed that the EU, as a bloc within the OSCE, will probably resist any "legally binding" decisions promoted by Kazakhstan that would lead to a "charter." ¶5. (C) During the ensuing discussion, UK Ambassador Paul Brummell offered that Kazakhstan might have initially seen its 2010 OSCE Chairmanship as a "grand honor to add to its achievement column," but that it's slowly dawning on Astana that the OSCE is not just one more post-Soviet talk shop. In fact, Kazakhstan's 2010 Chairmanship will require serious international responsibility. Brummell said that his ASTANA 00000498 002 OF 002 government has invited Deputy Foreign Minister Konstantin Zhigalov (responsible for Europe and the Americas) to London in April for a day of consultations on "international responsibility." (NOTE: Until early this year, Zhigalov was Kazakhstan's Ambassador in Brussels to the EU, NATO, and bilaterally to Belgium. END NOTE.) GUILE OR LACK OF CAPACITY? ¶6. (C) Ambassador of the Czech Republic Bedrich Kopecky offered that Kazakhstan's Senate Chairman Kasymzhomart Tokayev wrote on February 20 and spoke on March 13 about Kazakhstan's firm commitment to the OSCE's three baskets, and stated clearly that Kazakhstan is unwaveringly committed to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Ambassador Lebedel commented, "Rhetoric is one thing; full implementation is another." He asked, "Is this guile or lack of capacity?" MAYBE ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY IS A WORTHY GOAL? ¶7. (C) Canadian Ambassador Margaret Skok commented that Ottawa and the West in general see a contradiction between Kazakhstan's good words and its real-world lack of transparency, between its rhetorical goals and its current checkered reality. She chalked this up to a "lack of capacity" within the bureaucracy to enforce top-level policy. She further used her intervention to advocate fervently that Kazakhstan should use its OSCE Chairmanship to promote "environmental security," especially for nuclear and biological non-proliferation. ¶8. (C) Italian Ambassador Bruno Pasquino recommended that Kazakhstan should focus its 2010 OSCE Chairmanship on global environmental issues, including "sustainable development within the context of climate change." He asserted that Kazakhstan is facing epic catastrophe because "within five years, the sulfur produced by hydrocarbon extraction will poison out of existence all of Western Kazakhstan." He recommended that Kazakhstan should focus its OSCE Chairmanship on "environmental poisoning." The Canadian, UK, and U.S. Ambassadors refuted Pasquino's view that open-air storage of sulfur is a "catastrophe waiting to happen." (NOTE: The sulfur issue is current because Kazakhstan just slipped a line in a law defining Sulfur as "waste," rather than "product," and the regional government is attempting to levy massive fines against TengizChevrOil, which has considerable tons of solidified sulfur in open-air storage until it can sell it off. Sulfur stored like this is not considered an environmental or health threat. For fuller background on this issue, see reftel. END NOTE.) ¶9. (C) The Czech, German, and U.S. Ambassadors drew the conversation back to fundamental reality and achieved consenus that Kazakhstan has emerged as the pivot between Western principles and Russia's neo-Soviet chest thumping and eye-spitting. In the end, all agreed that it is essential to engage early and consistently with Kazakhstan's President Nazarbayev to encourage his better instincts during Kazakhstan's 2010 OSCE Chairmanship. All commended French OSCE PermRep Ambassador Lebedel for talking significant time to travel to Astana to learn the complicated ground realities of Kazakhstan as it seeks to move along a trajectory toward international principles of democracy and human rights. HOAGLAND