NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION TREATY (NPT): BACKGROUND

UNCLAS KYIV 000312 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR ISN/MNSA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KNNP AORC ENRG MNUC PARM NPT PREL IAEA UP SUBJECT: NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION TREATY (NPT): BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND REPORTING REQUEST REF: STATE 6970 ¶1. (SBU) Embassy delivered reftel demarche February 11 to Ministry of Foreign Affairs Directorate for Arms Control and Military Technical Cooperation NPT officer Maryna Yermakova, welcomed Ukraine's feedback, and left reftel points as a nonpaper. Yermakova thanked us for our early work leading to the May prepcom, and noted that Ukraine's position on several of the issues raised is laid out in their working paper submitted for the 2008 prepcom ("Preparing for a Successful Review Conference 2010"). She said that Ukraine finds it useful to address some of the actions necessary to achieve Treaty objectives outside the context of the review process, although she did not mention any particular action as an example, and noted that reaching consensus in plenary is extremely difficult. ¶2. (SBU) Yermakova underlined that Ukraine looks forward to discussion of nonproliferation issues at the bilateral Nonproliferation Working Group meetings in Washington February 24-25, and promised to notify Embassy if she had anything further before that time. ¶3. (SBU) Comment: The NPWG is a near term opportunity for the US to engage Ukraine on NPT issues at the expert level. Embassy will continue to reinforce US priorities with Ukrainian policy makers in the months leading to the PrepCom and RevCon, and report back on GOU views as they evolve. TAYLOR