FORMAL REQUEST FOR A BRIEFING FROM THE GOU ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L KYIV 001751 SIPDIS STATE FOR ISN/MTR; EUR/PRA E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/09/2019 TAGS: ETTC PARM PREL MNUC UP SUBJECT: FORMAL REQUEST FOR A BRIEFING FROM THE GOU ON PROPOSED UKRAINE-SAUDI SPACE LAUNCH COOPERATION (C) REF: SECSTATE 102973 Classified By: Political Counselor Colin Cleary, Reason 1.4 (b, d) ¶1. (C) Embassy delivered reftel demarche and talking points to Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department of Arms Control and Military Technical Cooperation officer Oleksander Osadchiy on September 28. Following up in a meeting with Maryna Yermakova of the Proliferation Security division of the same Department on October 6, Embassy stressed that we hoped to see a positive response from the Ministry as soon as possible, and reiterated reftel points verbally. Finally, Embassy met with First Secretary Maxim Osovalyuk in the MTCR Office of the same Department on October 9, and again reiterated the demarche points. ¶2. (C) Osovalyuk responded that Ukraine had already agreed to the requested meeting during the Non-Proliferation Working Group meetings in Kyiv on September 23-24, and supposed that the two sides could meet on the margins of the Rio MTCR Plenary. He said that Ukrainian experts would be present for the expert level meetings before the Plenary, and they could easily arrange the requested meeting at that time. He asked what questions in particular the U.S. would have for the experts, and noted that Ukraine might itself raise the proposed transfer during the Rio meetings in order to provide information to all of the MTCR partners. Osovalyuk said a formal response to our diplomatic note was being prepared by the National Space Agency of Ukraine and the Export Control authorities, but the response could take some time and he could not promise when we would have it. ¶3. (C) Embassy reminded Osovalyuk that the U.S. had been promised a full briefing by the Ukrainian side in April 2009, yet this request had been interpreted as informal, and despite assurances given at the time, was not acted on by the GoU. Therefore, we would like to nail down as many specifics as possible for the meeting in Rio, well in advance, and to ensure the right people would be there and that the exchange would be effective and useful. Embassy noted that time is growing short. Referring specifically to reftel points and the diplomatic note already provided, Embassy emphasized our request to have information on the proposed transfer sufficiently in advance to allow us to study it, and that we could not provide our specific areas of further interest to the GoU without this information. PETTIT