CZECH REPUBLIC: RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRAGUE 000176 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE ALEX TRATENSEK, SCA/A TOM REOTT, EUR/RPM AARON COPE, AND EUR/ERA DANIEL WEISFIELD E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/26/2019 TAGS: NATO PREL MOPS MARR PK AF EZ SUBJECT: CZECH REPUBLIC: RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE ON AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN DELIVERABLES FOR NATO AND U.S.-EU SUMMITS REF: SECSTATE 28929 Classified By: Deputy Political/Economic Counselor Martina Strong for r easons 1.4 (b) and (d). 1.(C) Political Officer delivered the reftel demarche to Veronika Kuchynova-Smigilova, the Czech MFA's Director of Security Policy, on March 26. She appreciated receiving our points and looked forward to a detailed discussion on a way forward for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the March 27 meeting of NATO Ambassadors, the April 3-4 NATO Summit, and the April 5 U.S.-EU summit. She said that she would share the list of deliverables for the NATO and EU summit with her colleagues in the Czech Government, but mentioned that, with the fall of the Czech Government on March 24, we are even less likely than before to see any increases in Czech deployments to Afghanistan. 2.(C) In reviewing the list of requirements, she stated that the Czechs would consider deploying up to 40 military police under a NATO police training program. Most importantly, the Czech Government does not need to gain parliamentary approval for this deployment in 2009. Since the Czechs will not send an ARTHUR radar with 40 personnel to Kandahar, the MOD could use these 40 billets to send military police. She also expects the Czech Government to offer some additional, limited financial assistance to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Thompson-Jones