ISAF: GREEKS WON'T GO TO RC-WEST AFTER ALL, NEW GOVERNMENT

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/11/13
TAGS: PREL PGOV NATO MARR GR AF
SUBJECT: ISAF: GREEKS WON'T GO TO RC-WEST AFTER ALL, NEW GOVERNMENT
DECIDES

CLASSIFIED BY: Daniel V. Speckhard, Ambassador; REASON: 1.4(B),(D)


1. (SBU) As foreshadowed by MOD Venizelos in his November 4
meeting with the Ambassador, Greek press reports that the
Government Council of Foreign Affairs and Defense (KYSEA),Greece's
NSC equivalent, decided November 13 to reverse the previous
government's commitment to re-deploy the Greek ISAF engineering
contingent from Kabul to RC-West and to increase the number of
Greek troops from 147 to 300. After the KYSEA meeting, MOD
Venizelos announced the decision. The Greek troops will stay in
Kabul. Commenting on the previous government's decision, Venizelos
said the Papandreou administration was concerned with the
possibility of loss of life among Greek troops and that the cost of
re-deployment was too high. Instead, Venizelos said, Greece will
dispatch 19 army officers to help with the training of Afghan
security forces and will contribute 3 million euros to the ANA
Trust Fund.




2. (C) Comment: The High Level Consultative Committee meeting on
November 16, led by Assistant Secretary of Defense Vershbow,
affords an opportunity to discuss this announcement. Previous
Embassy reporting had indicated growing Greek concerns with the
possibility of casualties, and the Greek realization that they
simply did not have the money or equipment necessary to send their
forces to a more hazardous part of Afghanistan. We understand,
though, that the engineers have little work to do in Kabul, and
that the space they occupy has already been pledged to other units,
based on the Greeks' April 2009 announcement that they were moving
to RC-West. Greece will need to work this out with ISAF. Given
the current budget crisis and the public nature of the new
Government's decision, it is unlikely that we would succeed in
reversing this decision. With our own announcement of the results
of the President's Afghanistan strategy review on the horizon,
Embassy recommends identifying other ISAF needs that Greece could
conceivably fill given its current force structure. End comment.
Speckhard