CYPRUS: EU'S BURMA POLICY FOCUSED, CONSISTENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L NICOSIA 000270 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE, EAP/MLS LAURA SCHEIBE. NSC FOR ELIZABETH PHU. E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/16/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV ETRD ASEAN BM CY SUBJECT: CYPRUS: EU'S BURMA POLICY FOCUSED, CONSISTENT REF: SECSTATE 33547 Classified By: DCM Jonathan Cohen, Reasons 1.4(b),(d) (C) On April 16, Poloff delivered reftel points on Burma to MFA Asia Desk Officer Sevak Avedissian. Avedissian welcomed our update and stated that he anticipated no immediate change in the EU's policy towards Burma. The EU will almost certainly roll over the Common Position on Burma without any substantive changes at the April 27-28 GAERC, as relaxing sanctions would send the wrong message at this time and could be viewed as a point of weakness by the GOB. Avedissian shared that EU Special Envoy Fassino, at the recent Prague Summit, reported little concrete progress by the Burmese regime towards human rights and democracy. The cancellation of the ASEAN Pattaya summit was unfortunate, Avedessian noted, since Burma surely would have been discussed; he was optimistic that the issue would be raised at the upcoming ASEAN-EU Foreign Ministers meeting in May. Urbancic