PORTUGUESE ON S-FM MEETING, ISAF, AFRICA, AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LISBON 000226 NOFORN SIPDIS KABUL FOR COS USFOR-A E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/21/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR MOPS CVIS XA ZK AF PO SUBJECT: PORTUGUESE ON S-FM MEETING, ISAF, AFRICA, AND BILATERAL CONCERNS LISBON 00000226 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: DEPUTY POL/ECON COUNSELOR TROY FITRELL FOR REASONS 1.4 ( b, d) ¶1. (C/NF) Summary. Portuguese MFA Political Director and his advisers met with Ambassador Stephenson April 21 to discuss a range of issues in advance of the Portugal-U.S. Bilateral Commission meeting scheduled for May 4. The Portuguese are pleased to have confirmation for FM Amado's meeting with Secretary Clinton, and hope to add Gen. Jones to the list as well. Amado will invite Secretary Clinton to Lisbon for the Community of Democracies ministerial in July and even offered to shift the dates of the ministerial if they conflicted with the Secretary's other commitments. The Portuguese will double ISAF personnel deployments but cannot yet confirm what form those contributions will take, as they have not yet cleared it with President Cavaco Silva. To accept Guantanamo detainees, the Portuguese need dossiers on the detainees in question, without which they cannot act. The Portuguese expect to confirm participation in the near future to engage on the Combating Serious Crime watch list and HSPD-6. End summary. ¶2. (U) In advance of the May 4 Portugal-U.S. Bilateral Commission meeting, Portuguese MFA Political Director Nuno Brito, Deputy Director Rui Maciera, Americas Desk Officer Francisco Alegre, MOD Policy Director Paulo Vizeu Pinheiro, and MOD Bilateral Programs Officer Bernardo Calheiro joined Ambassador Stephenson and his team for lunch on April 21 to discuss a range of issues of mutual concern. FM AMADO TO MEET S IN WASHINGTON, HOPEFULLY IN LISBON -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C/NF) Pol Dir Brito was pleased that a meeting between FM Amado and Secretary Clinton was confirmed for June 4 in Washington. Brito noted that Amado will also call on members of Congress and hopes to get confirmation on a meeting with National Security Adviser Gen. Jones. Brito also noted that Amado intends to write a letter to Secretary Clinton to invite her to the Community of Democracies ministerial meeting scheduled for Lisbon July 10-11. Brito noted that Secretary Clinton's attendance was a priority for the Portuguese and that Portugal would shift the dates in case of a conflict with Secretary Clinton's schedule. ISAF AND NATO 
 -------------- ¶4. (C/NF) Brito recalled Prime Minister Socrates' words at the NATO Summit, when Socrates spoke of doubling Portugal's contributions to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Neither Brito nor the MOD representatives could confirm what the increased contributions would be as the GOP had not finished its review of options or presented its plans to the National Defense Council and President Cavaco Silva. Brito confirmed, however, that the contributions would be to fill "an operational need." ¶5. (C/NF) Regarding current commitments, Vizeu Pinheiro noted that Portugal's second OMLT had been held up by bureaucratic delays, possibly due to flight clearances, but that the MOD expected it to deploy "soon." He added that the promised medical unit was expected to deploy in mid-June. Maciera confirmed that Portugal will take command of the Euro Gendarmerie in July, but Brito was quick to note that he did not expect Portugal to commit anything more than a token presence of 10-15 national guardsmen to any gendarmerie force for ISAF. Rising crime in Portugal, he posited, was a critical political issue at home, so sending police overseas was not viable in an election year. ¶6. (C/NF) Switching to Portugal's hosting of the 2010 NATO Summit, Brito joked that it would be in just one location, avoiding the logistical nightmare of Strasbourg/Kehl. Brito noted he wished to maintain a close dialog with Washington LISBON 00000226 002.2 OF 003 offices to ensure that the summit is productive. GTMO, COMBATING SERIOUS CRIME, AND HSPD-6 -------------- ¶7. (C/NF) Brito reviewed recent developments in the resettlement of Guantanamo Bay detainees, noting that the GOP still needed profiles and dossiers of the detainees that we hoped the GOP would accept. On the larger European Union front, Brito opined that the Czech government was paralyzed and suggested we begin to engage Sweden more actively in advance of the Swedish EU presidency. Alegre added that, while the recent EU visit to Washington was successful, the EU was far from a common position exacerbated by Schengen concerns. ¶8. (C/NF) Maciera volunteered that the GOP was aware that it owed Washington a response on the Combating Serious Crime watch list and the HSPD-6 initiatives, for each of which teams from Washington recently visited Lisbon. Maciera said the MFA would have a response on the watch list soon and that the interagency review on HSPD-6 was also close to completion. AFRICA -------------- ¶9. (C/NF) Brito said Amado will travel to Luanda tomorrow for a conference of all Portuguese ambassadors on the continent. Guinea-Bissau is Amado's chief concern, believing that upcoming elections there are critical to establish legitimacy of the Bissau government. Vizeu Pinheiro added that demobilizing the army, paying veterans, and "refreshing" the military into becoming a multi-ethnic institution are the pressing issues from the Portuguese MOD perspective. ¶10. (C/NF) Vizeu Pinheiro said the MOD is ready to engage in trilateral cooperation activities with the U.S. Africa Command and African partners, but that such projects must be developed jointly with the U.S., Portugal, and the African partner involved from the beginning. Joining existing U.S. projects, he continued, was not an option. He said demining, water, and HIV/AIDS were projects in which the MOD was interested and that they await any proposals Africa Command might wish to make. BILATERAL MILITARY ISSUES -------------- ¶11. (C/NF) Brito was particularly interested in the long-standing and frustrating impasse on the salary disputes for the U.S. Air Force's Portuguese workers at Lajes Air Base in the Azores. He was pleased to learn the U.S. and Portuguese delegations have agreed on a compromise text, but Ambassador Stephenson cautioned that we are still dependent on Congressional approval for the appropriation of the disputed funds. Brito noted that FM Amado hoped to announce resolution of the issue during his June visit to the U.S. ¶12. (C/NF) Vizeu Pinheiro told us that longstanding issues regarding hangar destruction, runway resurfacing, and an airspace training initiative at Lajes were near completion. The hangar issue, he said, was resolved in favor of our demolition plan. The runway plan was currently at the MOD's Director General for Infrastructure, but that they hoped to be finished before the May 4 meeting. The airspace training initiative was at the Ministry of Transportation, awaiting that ministry's counsel on the effect on civil aviation, but that the MOD expected completion of this review before the May 4 meeting as well. Vizeu Pinheiro also said that he thought that the training initiative's environmental impact study had been completed and no troubling issues had been noted. ¶13. (C/NF) Vizeu Pinheiro reiterated recent frustration with the surprise increase in pilot training costs for Portuguese flight candidates in the U.S. on foreign military sales contract training. He repeatedly stressed that they had LISBON 00000226 003.2 OF 003 signed a Letter of Offer and Agreement based on a certain price and were stunned to discover a 33 percent price increase mid-way through the program. We assured him that we were looking into both the specific situation of the cost increase and the general concern of how best to support Portuguese flight training without the total dependence Portugal has had on U.S. Air Force training facilities. VISITING UZBEKISTAN, TAJIKISTAN, AND EGYPT -------------- ¶14. (C/NF) Brito said he accompanied Amado on his trip to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Egypt, preceding Assistant Secretary Boucher in Tajikistan by one day and crossing paths with Special Envoy Mitchell in Cairo. In Tajikistan, Brito said the Tajiks told him they had once offered the use of a military air base to NATO or the U.S. but were less inclined to do so now. Brito recognized, however, that what he was told may have become out of date by A/S Boucher's subsequent meetings. Brito noted that the Prime Minister Socrates has a personal interest in the Middle East and the GOP hopes to use its long-standing connections in the region to further issues of mutual interest. COMMENT -------------- ¶15. (C/NF) Other GOP sources tell us the additional ISAF contributions would be a return of a Quick Reaction Force embedded with the British in Helmand Province, but Brito would not confirm this. On Guantanamo, the Portuguese offer is genuine, as is their need to reach an EU agreement, but nothing will happen without dossiers on each detainee to be resettled. On African cooperation, Vizeu Pinheiro himself is genuine about wanting to cooperate with Africa Command, but awaiting project proposals that must be developed from scratch is the MOD's institutional method of avoiding action. Africa Command is better off concentrating on Portugal's Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior, which are genuinely eager to act in concert with us in Africa, or working bilaterally with lusophone African partners as a way of spurring Portuguese participation. For more reporting from Embassy Lisbon and information about Portugal, please see our Intelink site: http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/portal:port ugal STEPHENSON