RUSSIA WILL CONSIDER DRAFT U.S.-RUSSIA POINTS OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 001652 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/23/2019 TAGS: PREL NATO OSCE KCFE MARR RS SUBJECT: RUSSIA WILL CONSIDER DRAFT U.S.-RUSSIA POINTS OF AGREEMENT FOR INFORMAL OSCE MINISTERIAL IN CORFU REF: A. STATE 63564 ¶B. MOSCOW 1541 Classified By: Acting Pol MC David Kostelancik. Reasons 1.4(b) and (d) ¶1. (C) We delivered ref A points to MFA European Cooperation Section head Pavel Knyazev on June 23. Knyazev said all the points looked fine at first glance, although the point on Trafficking in Persons struck him as "on a different scale," and did not address all of the issues in this area, where the U.S. and Russia had cooperated, such as countering trafficking in the Balkans. He also noted that Russia did not usually refer to several of the issues, such as the START Follow-on and Global Initiative points, in the context of the OSCE and NATO, but took our point that these issues affected EuroAtlantic security. ¶2. (C) Knyazev said the MFA had already provided the points for FM Lavrov's remarks, and that some of the issues, such as CFE, were already included. He added that FM Lavrov would comment on the "enhanced cooperation with the new U.S. Administration." But, nonetheless, the MFA would send our points to the Minister and they would see what could be incorporated into his remarks, Knyazev said. In response to his comment that with translation, the points may not be identical, we assured him we were not looking for exact language, but simply to convey that the U.S. and Russia were working together on issues relevant to EuroAtlantic security. ¶3. (C) In response to our question, Knyazev said FM Lavrov saw the informal OSCE Ministerial as a good opportunity to have a frank discussion at the political level of hard security issues. Lavrov was also prepared to discuss soft security issues, but as the MFA had told us last week (ref B),Moscow believed the "soft" issues were in better shape than the "hard" ones. Lavrov would promote President Medvedev's European Security Treaty idea, and would address how to overcome the problems in implementing the principle of indivisible security, Knyazev noted. He added that Lavrov would likely suggest the OSCE consider convening a meeting under the Cooperative Security Platform, in order to enhance cooperation and coordination of the various organizations operating in the security sphere. For instance, Knyazev said, NATO, the EU, the OSCE and CSTO all are working on projects to stabilize Afghanistan, and it might be useful to look at ways to better harmonize their efforts. Moscow was also ready to discuss OSCE transformation issues, Knyazev stated. BEYRLE