MACEDONIA: UNGA GOALS AND OBJECTIVES DEMARCHE

UNCLAS SKOPJE 000452 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/SCE AND IO/UNP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL UNGA XA XB XD XF XG XS XM XL MK SUBJECT: MACEDONIA: UNGA GOALS AND OBJECTIVES DEMARCHE DELIVERED REF: SECSTATE 90254 ¶1. (SBU) PolOff delivered reftel points to MFA Director for Multilateral Affairs Svetlana Geleva and Deputy Director for Multilateral Affairs Sanja Zografska-Krteska on September 10. Geleva reported that due to budget shortfalls, she, as a MFA's main UNGA subject matter expert, would not be attending as part of the Macedonian delegation. She said that MFA's Director for Collective Security Zoran Dabic will attend (before departing for Vienna as Macedonia's Ambassador to OSCE) and support President Ivanov and Foreign Minister Milososki. ¶2. (SBU) Geleva and Zografska-Krteska warmly received reftel points, and expressed their support for and enthusiasm about the recent election of the U.S. to the Human Rights Council, our re-engagement in multi-lateral issues expressed in the reftel points, and the U.S. commitment to the UN embodied our paying arrears and meeting our financial obligations to the UN in full. Geleva noted that Macedonia can be expected to co-sponsor resolutions on human rights violations in Iran, DPRK and Burma, and to vote with the U.S. or EU throughout the UNGA. Geleva indicated that Macedonia supports the U.S. position not to change the current assessed ceiling rate of 22%. REEKER