GERMANY SHARES U.S. CONCERNS ABOUT UN CONFERENCE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BERLIN 000602 STATE FOR IO/EDA (BALLARD),EEB/IFD/ODF (MONAHAN) AND EUR/CE (SCHROEDER) LABOR FOR ILAB (BRUMFIELD) TREASURY FOR ICN (KOHLER),IMB (MURDEN, MONROE, BEASLEY) AND OASIA SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/19/2019 TAGS: EAID ECON EFIN UNGA GM SUBJECT: GERMANY SHARES U.S. CONCERNS ABOUT UN CONFERENCE ON DEVELOPMENT IMPACT OF CRISIS REF: STATE 50892 Classified By: ECON COUNSELOR INGRID KOLLIST FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D ). ¶1. (C) On May 20, 2009, Econoff delivered reftel points to Peter Woeste, Head of Division, Economic and Development Affairs of the United Nations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to urge cooperation on achieving an acceptable outcome at the June 1-3, 2009 United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development. Woeste described the President of the General Assembly's (PGA's) original draft outcome document as "ridiculous," but said there was already a new draft on the table. Germany and other European Union (EU) members had already sent a strong message to PGA Miguel D'Escoto Brockman (Nicaragua) that they were "not willing to play by his rules." Woeste said the new draft was vastly improved, but still contained some original elements he hoped could be negotiated away. He hoped the United States would join in negotiations on the new draft "from the beginning," and not "wait until the last minute before proposing numerous changes." Germany hopes for an "acceptable outcome document" like the United States, "unless we run out of time and have to produce a short procedural paper," Woeste explained. He added that the current draft still blames developed countries for the crisis, while portraying developing countries as victims; the paper needs more balance. ¶2. (C) Woeste hoped the UN Conference would not damage the credibility of the United Nations. He acknowledged that the United States and EU countries probably did not view the conference as very useful, but pointed out that many other countries took it very seriously. Moreover, G-20 countries needed to find a way to "give the impression at least that the other 172 countries in the UN had a stake in addressing the economic crisis." Woeste did not have specific suggestions to this end, but advised that Germany was open to various ideas. According to Woeste, the "best possible outcome" was for the June 1-3 gathering to be the one and only conference on the subject, though the PGA would like a follow-on meeting in the autumn. ¶3. (SBU) Reftel points were also shared with officials at the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Ministry of Economics and Technology, Ministry of Finance and Chancellery. BMZ and Economics Ministry contacts confirmed German concerns about the conference, as elaborated by Woeste. Koenig