GREEK VIEWS ON CONTACT GROUP ON PIRACY OFF THE COAST OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 000735 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/05/07 TAGS: MARR ECON PREL PTER GR SUBJECT: GREEK VIEWS ON CONTACT GROUP ON PIRACY OFF THE COAST OF SOMALIA REF: STATE 45157; ATHENS 551 CLASSIFIED BY: Thomas S. Miller, Acting DCM; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) We delivered ref A points on U.S. goals for the urgent meting of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) to the senior Greek participant in the CGPCS, Ambassador Tryphon Paraskevopoulos, MFA D1 (UN and International Organizations Affairs) Director, on May 6. As on previous occasions, Paraskevopoulos expressed strong support for the U.S. taking an active leadership role to ensure that the CGPCS is effective in countering the increasing threat from pirates. He agreed strongly on the need to track pirate assets, asked for more information on U.S. ideas for commercial ship self-protection and denying pirates the benefits of concessions, urged improved international sharing of information about piracy, and reiterated Greece's interest in working with the U.S. to resolve the issue of Cyprus joining the CGPCS. End Summary. Ready to Support U.S. Leadership -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Paraskevopoulos said he looked forward to the May 29 plenary session in New York, which he expected to be an efficient meeting because the U.S. would preside. Paraskevopoulos stressed several times that U.S. leadership was essential to keep the CGPCS on track, and he pledged Greek support for efforts to streamline the group's decision making. He said Greece agreed with the U.S. on the need for more forces off the coast of Somalia, noting that Greece had a new naval vessel joining the EU's Operation Atalanta, replacing the ship of the previous Greek captain who had recently completed his rotation as tactical commander of the operation. He said Greece would remain part of Atalanta as long as the operation lasted, and was also planning to establish a presence in Djibouti in addition to its officers at the command center In Northwood, England. He added that the EU was considering expanding its area of operations to include the Seychelles region, and this would also require more assets. No Need for International Tribunal -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Regarding detention and prosecution of pirates, Paraskevopoulos noted that the EU was examining further support to Kenya. He added, however, that very little information had reached the EU or Greece from the trials or interrogation of pirates, and he expressed hope that sharing of such information could be improved so that it could be factored into counter-piracy efforts. On a similar note, Paraskevopoulos called for more comprehensive sharing of intelligence between U.S., NATO, and EU operations in the waters off Somalia. ¶4. (C) Paraskevopoulos said Greek law includes a universal jurisdiction provision that would allow Greece to try pirates detained in international waters. He said the German DCM in Athens had approached him in support of establishing an international or regional tribunal to try pirates, but Paraskevopoulos had responded that it would be much more effective for those countries with universal jurisdiction (such as Germany and Greece) to try the pirates in domestic courts, while encouraging other countries to adopt universal jurisdiction laws as well. The German DCM replied to Paraskevopoulos that Germany did not want to take responsibility for the convicted pirates after they completed sentences in Germany. Paraskevopoulos reiterated to us that he thought establishing a new tribunal would be unnecessarily costly and slow, and said Greece would stress that opinion in a CGPCS working group meeting currently taking place in Copenhagen. Interested in Specifics of U.S. Ideas -------------- ¶5. (SBU) On commercial ship self-protection, Paraskevopoulos said it would be helpful to have a paper outlining U.S. ideas prior to the May 29 meeting, so that the government could discuss it with Greek shipping companies. He expressed skepticism about the idea of armed guards on ships, noting that a corresponding escalation of pirate tactics and weapons could lead to loss of life and potentially to an environmental disaster. He cited as an example one case in which pirates had unsuccessfully fired an RPG at a tanker. Paraskevopoulos said he hoped that USG views on denying pirates the benefits of concessions would not include an idea, reportedly being considered by a group of Congressmen, to deny U.S. port access to ships from companies that paid ransom. Such a proposal, he said, would divide the U.S. from the rest of the international community on the piracy issue precisely when they needed to work together. Time for CGPCS to Tackle Pirate Assets -------------- ¶6. (C) Paraskevopoulos expressed strong support for launching a working group to explore tracking and freezing pirate assets, and added that either the EU or U.S. should lead it in order to ensure it was effective. He noted that at the previous New York plenary, regional countries such as Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE had objected strenuously to tracking assets, but he urged the U.S. to push hard despite such objections. He said the Greek government had taken action domestically to try to track assets, with the Ministry of Economy issuing a directive to financial institutions. As a result, the Greek government had learned that the owners of the Saldania, a Greek-owned ship that was hijacked in January and later released, had requested permission to export USD 2 million in cash. He said Greek officials were now investigating where that money went. He said the Greek government had also been trying to gather information about private negotiations over another hijacked Greek-owned ship, the M/V Titan. Looking for a Way to Open the Door to Cyprus -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Paraskevopoulos reiterated Greece's interest in finding a way to admit Cyprus to the CGPCS, in light of Cyprus's status as a major maritime nation and its contributions to anti-piracy efforts, in spite of objections from Turkey, which does not recognize Cyprus (ref B). Paraskevopoulos provided us a copy of a diplomatic note, dated March 13, that Cyprus had submitted to Egypt (then rotating chair of the CGPCS) stating its intention to seek membership. Paraskevopoulos said that although he was eager to get beyond this issue, he agreed that the May 29 meeting was too soon to achieve a broadly acceptable solution, and he favored addressing the matter at the next meeting in July. Paraskevopoulos said the German proposal for an international trust fund to help regional countries prosecute and jail pirates might offer an avenue out of the dispute. He asked what the U.S. would think of a provision making contributors to the trust fund "ipso jure" members of the CGPCS. In this way, Cyprus could contribute to the fund and join the CGPCS without any need for CGPCS members to make a decision on Cyprus specifically. Paraskevopoulos acknowledged that this approach might not be acceptable to the U.S., and he reiterated his willingness to work with us on any mechanism to resolve this issue. SPECKHARD