DELIVERY OF THE AFGHANISTAN TRANSIT -- GENERAL

S E C R E T MOSCOW 002339 SIPDIS DEPT FOR PM/RSAT - DANIEL WARTKO E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2019 TAGS: MARR PREL US RS AF SUBJECT: DELIVERY OF THE AFGHANISTAN TRANSIT -- GENERAL AUTHORIZATION AGREEMENT REF: STATE 092632 Classified By: Acting Political Minister Counselor David Kostelancik. Reason: 1.4 (b),(d). ¶1. (C) We delivered reftel General Authorization Agreement to Nikolay V. Sofinskiy, Deputy Director, Alexey Lisenkov, Counselor, and Alexander Pashedko, Third Secretary, of the MFA's North America department. U.S. Air Force Colonel Ray Schultz, Air Attache, also attended. ¶2. (S) Sofinskiy welcomed the agreement and indicated that he would distribute it to the relevant agencies, including the Russian Customs Agency. He acknowledged that the Russian side had 30 days to review the document. The Russians agreed that the issue of flight permissions needed to be explored further and offered to host a meeting to discuss the topic in Moscow in September. Pashedko stated that there was a procedure for authorizing diplomatic flights now, although he recognized that if the number of flights significantly increased, as could be expected under the agreement, a more efficient procedure might need to be found. Beyrle