FRENCH UNLIKELY TO OFFER MUCH AT PAKISTAN TOKYO

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 000415 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/18/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV EAID ECON EFIN IBRD IMF PK FR SUBJECT: FRENCH UNLIKELY TO OFFER MUCH AT PAKISTAN TOKYO DONOR'S CONFERENCE, STILL DECIDING ON PARTICIPATION REF: STATE 24367 Classified By: A/DCM Seth Winnick for reasons 1.4 (B & D). ¶1. (C) Embassy delivered points in reftel to French MFA officer Jasmine Zerinini deputy director of the newly created office of France's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan on March 16. She had no information when we spoke to her about French intentions with respect to new financial pledges for Afghanistan. In a separate meeting on March 17, however, Jacques Lapouge, French PM Fillon's diplomatic adviser, told us France will have difficulty making a significant pledge at the April 17 Pakistan donor's conference in Tokyo. He reacted coolly to reftel demarche, commenting that the prime minister's office is attempting to impose strict financial discipline on all ministries. In the current economic context, "we are being more vigilant than ever," Lapouge said, adding that, "diplomats make promises but it is becoming harder and harder to finance them." Even financial assistance for Africa, a longstanding French priority, could suffer in the current context, he remarked. As of late March 20, Embassy was still trying to get a definitive response from other parts of the GOF with an interest in this issue without success. ¶2. (SBU) Regarding French attendance, the MFA told us on March 19 that FM Kouchner had not made a decision about attending the Tokyo conference, although special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Pierre Lellouche will definitely attend. The MFA hopes to confirm French attendance by sometime early the week of March 23-27. ¶3. (U) We were unable to coordinate with the embassies of Japan and Pakistan to deliver a joint demarche, although we know the Pakistanis delivered their own demarche on March 19. Pakistani polcouns Rafi Ywaman Siddiqi told us on March 20 that the response the Pakistanis received from the MFA was the same as ours, i.e., that the GOF could not provide any estimates of a possible pledge at the conference, nor could the MFA confirm who would attend for France. Siddiqi said his embassy was hoping to get more information next week. We will pursue our requests for more information from the MFA and from the apanese embassy in Paris early next week. PEKALA