IO ACTING A/S WARLICK'S FEBRUARY 6 MEETING WITH UNESCO

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS FR 000201 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O.12958 N/A TAGS: UNESCO PREL AORC KWBG ZL SUBJECT: IO ACTING A/S WARLICK'S FEBRUARY 6 MEETING WITH UNESCO DIRECTOR-GENERAL MATSUURA ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Director-General (DG) Matsuura and IO Acting A/S Warlick discussed on February 6 ways in which UNESCO could reach out and engage the new U.S. Administration, with the DG considering invitations to First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden. Acting A/S Warlick warned that figures in the new Administration are just beginning their jobs, and that it may take some time before they decide whether and how they wish to be involved with UNESCO. Warlick raised the need for UNESCO to hire more Americans, urging the DG, in particular, to give positive consideration to the highly qualified American candidates who have applied for a D-1 position in the World Heritage Center. Warlick also urged the DG to avoid the temptation to play to the crowd on Gaza and to help us resolve the issue of how to refer to World Heritage sites in Kosovo that has been dangling since the World Heritage meeting in Quebec last July. The DG assured Warlick that he would like to hire more Americans and warned that Kosovo is a very delicate issue for UNESCO, as UNESCO is involved in repairing some of the monasteries that are World heritage sites. End Summary. Engaging the New U.S. Administration ¶2. (SBU) DG Matsuura, who was joined by his chief of staff, Elizabeth Longworth, and other members of his cabinet, began his February 6 meeting with International Organizations Acting Assistant Secretary Warlick and USUNESCO CDA Engelken by discussing how UNESCO might reach out to the new Obama Administration. As the DG returned to this topic several times during the conversation, it was apparent that it interested him deeply. In the course of their 45 minute discussion, the DG suggested UNESCO might invite First Lady Michelle Obama to UNESCO's March 9 International Women's Day commemoration and would like to encourage Secretary Clinton to stop at UNESCO Headquarters on one of her trips to Europe. He also confided that he had already sent a letter to the Vice President's spouse Jill Biden inviting her to attend the opening of the World Conference on Higher Education that will convene in Paris on July 5, 2009. The DG explained that he felt that Mrs. Biden who is on the faculty of a community college could usefully explain how the U.S. community college model could be useful to developing countries. Finally, Longworth informed Warlick that she and Assistant Director General for Education Burnett would like to visit Washington for meetings as soon as the new team is ready to receive visitors. ¶3. (SBU) Warlick responded to all these ideas by urging realism. The new Administration is just taking office, and it will take some time for them to focus on UNESCO. A trip to Washington by UNESCO staff at this time would thus be premature. With regard to the First Lady, we do not yet know what role the she will want to play. Warlick thought the idea of inviting Mrs. Biden to the World Conference on Higher Education was a good one, although again we do not know what issues she will wish to be involved in. He also urged UNESCO staff to keep in mind that Ambassador Susan Rice takes an interest in the entire UN system not just the New York headquarters. UNESCO may wish at the appropriate time to find a way to reach out to her as well. Hiring Americans ¶4. (SBU) Warlick raised the need for UNESCO to hire more Americans. He recalled that he had testified to Congress a year ago on the issue of American employment in the UN system and had encountered many hard questions about the obstacles American candidates faced in obtaining jobs in international organizations. It is difficult to ask Congress for more money for an organization, if it has no Americans in senior positions. We have put forward two good candidates for a D-1 position in the World Heritage Center, Warlick continued. We hope you will give them serious consideration, he concluded. ¶5. (SBU) The DG replied that he wanted to hire Americans and had been very sorry that an American Deputy Assistant Director-General had recently quit for personal reasons. He noted that UNESCO had just given an American an internal promotion to the rank of D-1 so he could become director of UNESCO's Costa Rica field office. He also recalled that he had offered the job of ethics officer to an American who is currently considering whether or not to accept it. ¶6. (SBU) Note: Warlick also raised the need to hire Americans in a conversation with Deputy Director General Barbosa later that same day. Barbosa reiterated the DG's interest in hiring Americans but noted the difficulty of quickly raising the proportion of Americans in an organization in which turnover is very slow. UNESCO hires only 40-50 persons a year. Ten of them cannot be Americans. The U.S. contingent can only be built slowly. Barbosa suggested that there were things the U.S. could do to help its cause. First, he said, it should try to make things easier for Americans working in the Organization. An American recently quit UNESCO, for example, because his wife's home agency demanded she end her leave of absence and either return or resign. Second, Barbosa continued, the U.S. should also facilitate the use of qualified personnel. The U.S. should be able to second personnel when they are needed temporarily for a project, and it should participate in the associate experts program which would allow some of the U.S. extra-budgetary money to be used to hire Americans for temporary tasks associated with the projects the U.S. money is financing. End Note. Gaza ¶7. (SBU) Warlick commented that we seem to have gotten beyond our difference over the 2005 Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. We would like our relationship with UNESCO to grow and prosper. President Obama wants to adopt a cooperative tone in international organizations. In order for him to do so at UNESCO, however, political items must be kept off UNESCO's agenda. They could sour the atmosphere significantly. Referring to the DG's comments schools as safe-zones made at a meeting earlier the same day on the situation in Gaza, Warlick noted the DG faces pressure to do popular things. Highly charged political issues like this, however, should be dealt with in their own channel and not at UNESCO. Kosovo ¶8. (SBU) Turning to other sensitive issues, Warlick also raised our long-running debate with UNESCO over the proper title of a World Heritage Committee decision on medieval monasteries in Kosovo. Kosovo's independence is a growing fact in the international order. Last year's World Heritage decisions need to be published soon. It is a small thing, Warlick said, but it would help if we could just get agreement on reference to the state that nominated site in a footnote, as the U.S. has suggested. ¶9. (SBU) The DG responded that this is a difficult issue. UNESCO has been involved in restoration work on these monasteries. UNESCO originally concluded an agreement with UNMIK to do this work. After Kosovo declared its independence, however, everything has become more complicated. It became more difficult to deal with Serbia. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon told me, the DG said, that UNSC 1488 still applies, and UNESCO must implement it. UNESCO, therefore, cannot talk to the Kosovo Government, he concluded. ¶10. (SBU) Comment: DG Matsuura was relaxed, animated, and almost jovial throughout this discussion. He clearly is looking for a chance to cement solid relations the Obama Administration. Matsuura was, however, reluctant to be pinned down on some of the more political issues that arose during this conversation. The DG's eagerness to get the new Administration on side gives us some leverage with him on these issues that we will need to use the weeks ahead. ¶11. (U) Acting IO A/S Warlick has cleared this message. ENGELKEN