SLOVENIA CONSIDERING SPECIFIC REQUESTS FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 000093 SIPDIS SCA/A TOM REOTT AND EUR/RPM AARON COPE E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/03/2019 TAGS: PREL NATO MOPS MARR AF SI SUBJECT: SLOVENIA CONSIDERING SPECIFIC REQUESTS FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO AFGHANISTAN REF: SECSTATE 31102 Classified By: CDA BFreden, reason 1.4(b,d) ¶1. (C) CDA raised with Ambassador Benedejcic, Director of the MFA's Directorate for Policy Planning and Multilateral Policy, on April 2 our specific requests for additional contributions in Afghanistan (reftel). Benedejcic thanked the U.S. for its leadership on the situation in Afghanistan. He noted that there had been second thoughts in the EU on the future of Afghanistan and concern about what would happen when the U.S. changed administration, so it was helpful that the Obama administration was discussing the issue so early. Benedejcic did not push back on any of the requests, implying that he found them reasonable. He stated that Slovenia is considering opening a diplomatic post Afghanistan. He agreed to discuss the requests with the Ministry of Defense and meet again after the NATO summit. ¶2. (C) ADCM raised the same requests with Tadej Burgar, Director General of the Defense Policy Directorate at the Ministry of Defense, on April 3; he mentioned that Benedejcic had already been in contact. Burgar said that Slovenia would look very closely at our three specific requests, and expressed the hope that Slovenia would shortly be able to signal what direction its response would be, if not able to give an exact answer. He stressed that the government was "determined to do all we can in Afghanistan." FREDEN