FRENCH VIEWS IN ADVANCE OF THE NATO MINISTERIAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 001544 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/20/2019 TAGS: PREL NATO MOPS FR AF SUBJECT: FRENCH VIEWS IN ADVANCE OF THE NATO MINISTERIAL PARIS 00001544 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Kathleen Allegrone for reas ons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary. Two weeks out from the NATO summit, post met with French officials to discuss leading issues in advance of the December 3-4 NATO ministerial meeting. Our French interlocutors included Patrick Maisonnave, Strategic Affairs Director at the MFA; Muriel Domenech, MFA DAS-equivalent for NATO Affairs and Francois Delmas, Specialist on Afghanistan deployments in the MFA Af-Pak cell. Our interlocutors reported that France agrees in principle with the U.S. missile defense objectives, but remains concerned about the question of financing. Paris does not want to go too far in approving an MD system for NATO until they have further information about the size and cost of our proposal. France remains opposed to using NATO common funding for air support and maintenance for the planned AWACS deployment to the UAE; they are willing to consider other options but understand that the UK has now halted consideration of its AWACS offer. On Afghanistan, Paris awaits the U.S. strategy roll-out and hopes we will consult closely with Allies. French officials support the proposed January 28 conference in London to discuss civilian assistance, but believe we must clarify the agenda, timing and sequence -- specifically whether we are still pushing for a pre-conference in Kabul. They said the conference should focus on improved coordination of civilian assistance in Afghanistan, but France wants the UN to continue to play a major role. France fully agrees with giving MAP to Montenegro in December, but waiting for Bosnia to complete necessary reforms. Finally, our French interlocutors inquired whether the U.S. wants to include a statement on the need for NATO reform in the ministerial communique. On EGF, French gendarmes are still scheduled to fully deploy by December 1 and Paris is waiting for the NTM-A force generation conference to finalize different country contributions. End Summary. -------------- MISSILE DEFENSE: SHOW ME THE MONEY! -------------- ¶2. (C) The official French position on U.S. missile defense proposals is unchanged. French officials have repeatedly assured us that the GOF supports MD "in principle" as demonstrated by President Sarkozy's statement of support after the announcement of the new Phased Adaptive Approach. We raised SecDef Gates "4-points" for inclusion in the December ministerial communique with Maisonnave and Domenech on November 19. Both stressed that we have French support on a political level, but they have lingering questions about the cost of the proposed system and the use of NATO common funding to finance it. Domenech cautioned that it is too early in the process for Paris to have a firm position, as Allies still do not have specifics as to the architecture of how our system would interact with NATO's ALTBMD. For example, Domenech said that if Washington is merely proposing an upgrade to air defense systems, rather than something more substantial, that will affect the final French position. By raising these questions now, French officials hope to get the necessary information for a more informed decision by Allies at the 2010 Lisbon summit. They are cautious about making statements that are too proactive now, because it risks raising expectations that won't be fulfilled. The GOF does not want to end up in a circular argument where the U.S. claims that NATO agreed to support our MD systems but then balks at paying for it, while France or other allies says they only agreed to supportive language but didn't commit to the associated costs. -------------- AWACS IMPASSE GROWING -------------- ¶3. (C) Maisonnave and Domenech reported that no solution has been found to the financing questions raised over the proposed AWACS deployment to the UAE. French officials insist that they are acting on principle and are not against the deployment itself. According to Domenech, the problem arose over a difference of understanding of the baseline agreement: the UK believed that air servicing and maintenance costs would be covered as this is a overseas deployment from the UAE, whereas France is firm that maintenance and support costs should not come from NATO common funding. The NATO Secretary-General has proposed an alternative option in which only the NATO countries with AWACS would share the funding amongst themselves in an effort to move the process forward. However, Domenech reported that Paris officials now understand that the UK Defense Minister has now halted PARIS 00001544 002 OF 003 consideration of the UK AWACS proposal, so the issue may remain at an impasse. (COMMENT: Post defers to USNATO for the latest developments on this issue) -------------- - AFGHANISTAN CONFERENCE AND CIVILIAN ASSISTANCE -------------- - ¶4. (C) Maisonnave informed us that the GOF supports the proposed conference in London on Afghanistan in January, and he understood from the French readout of the recent Quad discussion that the USG is supportive as well. He said that the international community must now clarify the agenda and sequence of the meeting, in particular deciding whether there will still be some kind of pre-meeting in Kabul as the Afghans had desired. Maisonnave further stated that the London conference should have as its focus the question of improving coordination of civilian assistance. He cited German concerns about weakening UNAMA and noted the various proposals under consideration in Washington to address the problems. He stated that France needs for the UN to continue to play a major role in any solution. Specifically, he cautioned against an attempt to subsume the civilian assistance coordination within ISAF, saying that could render the coordination even more complex. On the other hand, Maisonnave agreed that there are problems with the current system that must be addressed and the GOF is willing to consider other candidates to succeed Kai Eide when his mandate ends in March 2010. Maisonnave also inquired about the expected roll-out date of the USG decision on supplementary troops for Afghanistan and expressed the hope that Allies will have an opportunity to consult with us and review the new plan before making additional commitments of their own. -------------- MAP AND NATO REFORM -------------- ¶5. (C) Maisonnave stated that France fully agrees with Washington's position in favor of granting MAP to Montenegro in December, and waiting to take action on Bosnia and Herzegovina until it has made progress on necessary constitutional reforms. Maisonnave also inquired as to whether the USG was interested in including a mention of NATO reform in the ministerial communique. He noted that a few phrases on the objectives of the reform could be a worthy addition to the statement. -------------- EGF: TWO STEPS FORWARD AND ONE TO THE SIDE -------------- ¶6. (C) In a separate meeting with Francois Delmas from the MFA Af-Pak cell, Delmas said that the rest of the 150 French gendarmes will be deployed to Afghanistan on December 1 as part of the European Gendarmerie Force (EGF). They are expected to join their approximately 30 colleagues currently on the ground in Masar-e-Sharif who are engaged in ANCOP training. Delmas said that France is still in discussions with other countries about police training contributions and listed the following possibilities (in addition to the 200 Italian carabinieri who are part of the EGF): Poland (10); Spain (40),Lithuania (2),with the Netherlands, Romania and Turkey still considering options. Delmas said that while the Lithuanians would definitely join EGF, the other country contributions could fall under either CSTC-A or EGF, and he expected that the situation would not be clarified until the NTM-A force generation meeting. As for finding a base for the EGF headquarters, Delmas said that the GOF was pessimistic that a deal could be worked out to use Camp Invicta, since it would require an agreement for the Afghan MOD to turn over its portion of the camp to the MOI which is responsible for police training. Expecting it to be the subject of long interagency battle, France is considering other sites, including one in Wardak, to locate the EGF base. ¶7. (C) Comment. On many of the above topics -- MAP, NATO reform, Afghanistan -- France remains fairly close to U.S. positions in the lead up to the December ministerial. While the GOF has long affirmed opposition to spending additional funds on MD, Post is hopeful that Paris will be able to support the USG language on MD, perhaps with some additional consultation or minor negotiating over specific language. However, the French position on AWACS deployment appears firm and we see little hope of budging Paris from what it considers its "principled" position on financing. Post welcomes any additional guidance on planning for the London conference on Afghanistan, particularly on our proposed PARIS 00001544 003 OF 003 agenda and whether we continue to support holding some kind of pre-meeting in Kabul. End comment. PEKALA