JCIC-DIP-09-003: RESPONSE TO RUSSIAN AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L STATE 027631 SIPDIS MOSCOW FOR DTRO-M/ACID GENEVA FOR JCIC E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/20/2029 TAGS: PARM KACT START US RS UP BO KZ SUBJECT: JCIC-DIP-09-003: RESPONSE TO RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN REQUEST TO MEET IN JOINT COMPLIANCE AND INSPECTION COMMISSION REF: A. 09 STATE 023114 (RNC/STR 09-51/135) ¶B. 09 STATE 023204 (UNC/STR 09-5/137) Classified By: Jerry Taylor, Director VCI/SI. Reason 1.4B and D ¶1. (U) This is an action cable (see paragraph 4). ¶2. (C) Background: On March 11, 2009, Russia proposed a meeting of the Parties to the START Treaty in the Joint Compliance and Inspection Commission (JCIC) from March 31 to April 3, 2009, in Geneva (Ref A). Similarly, Ukraine proposed a JCIC session from April 13 to April 17, 2009 (Ref B). Paragraph 1 of Section II of the JCIC Protocol to the START Treaty states that a session of the Commission shall be convened at the request of either Party. No later than 14 days after receiving such a request, the requested Party shall submit a response. Paragraph 2 of Section II of the JCIC Protocol to the START Treaty requires that a JCIC session be convened not later than 30 days after the date proposed in the Request for Meetings. ¶3. (C) The United States will be examining the issues being discussed in the JCIC as it prepares for discussions with Russia on a new treaty to replace START, which expires in December. Consequently, we believe that it would be more productive to delay the session until later this spring (perhaps from June 1 to June 5) when we have had an opportunity to review the JCIC issues and to have conducted diplomatic exchanges on some of them to prepare for a JCIC meeting. We believe that all Parties would then be in a better position to address issues placed on the agenda. ¶4. (U) Action Request: Embassies Moscow, Kyiv, and Astana are requested to provide the text contained in paragraph 6 below to appropriate host government officials in the Form of a non-paper, not later than March 25, 2009. Washington will provide each embassy a courtesy Russian-language translation of the paper. Washington requests that each embassy confirm delivery of this paper, the name and office of the official to whom it was delivered, the date of delivery, and any comment or reaction provided at that time. ¶5. (U) The text in paragraph 6 will be sent directly to the Belarusian Government via a service message transmitted by the U.S. Nuclear Risk Reduction Center. ¶6. (C/Releasable to Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Ukraine) Begin text of U.S. paper: The United States Response to the Russian Federation and Ukraine Regarding the Request to Convene a Meeting of the Joint Compliance and Inspection Commission. The United States has received the Russian (RNC/STR 09-51/135) and Ukrainian (UNC/STR 09-5/137) requests to conduct a meeting of the Joint Compliance and Inspection Commission (JCIC) in April. Although we are willing to meet in April, we believe that convening a meeting later in the spring would be more productive in that it would provide the sides with additional time to review the items on the proposed agenda and prepare those issues through exchanges in diplomatic channels for more constructive discussion than we could in April. The United States believes that the JCIC has been an essential element in the successful implementation of the START Treaty. The dialogue in the Commission is important to building trust and transparency in our relationship on strategic issues. We wish to ensure that each meeting of the Commission is adequately prepared through exchanges by the Parties between sessions. These exchanges help ensure that Commission meetings are characterized by open and frank exchanges designed to fully discuss and resolve issues raised by the Treaty Parties. In this regard, as the United States is examining issues being addressed in the JCIC, we believe it would be more productive to discuss these issues during a session that would be convened later this spring, perhaps from June 1 to June 5, than it would be to convene a JCIC meeting in April. Therefore, the United States requests support of both Russia and Ukraine in withdrawing their proposals for a meeting in April and to re-issue the proposal for a later date. We appreciate your consideration and look forward to working with you to resolve important issues being addressed in the JCIC. End text of U.S. paper. CLINTON