DEPUTY SECRETARY STEINBERG'S JUNE 27, 2009

C O N F I D E N T I A L STATE 074989


E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/01/2019
TAGS: GG MOPS NATO OVIP RS PREL KCFE

SUBJECT: DEPUTY SECRETARY STEINBERG'S JUNE 27, 2009
MEETING IN THE NATO-RUSSIA COUNCIL

Classified By: Deputy Secretary Steinberg, Reason 1.4(d)


1. (U) June 27, 2009; 1700; Corfu, Greece.


2. (U) Participants:

U.S.
Deputy Secretary Steinberg
Ambassador Ivo Daalder, USNATO
A/S Phil Gordon, EUR
DASD Celeste Wallander, OSD
Dr. Liz Sherwood Randall, NSC
Bruce Turner, Director EUR/RPM
Reece Smyth, notetaker

Other NRC Ministers

Albania - Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha
Belgium - Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht
Bulgaria - Foreign Minister Ivailo Kolfin
Canada - Foreign Minister David Emerson
Croatia - Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic
Czech Republic - Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg
Denmark - Foreign Minister Dr. Per Stig Moeller
Estonia - Foreign Minister Urmas Paet
France - Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner
Germany - Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Greece - Prime Minister Kostantinos Karamanlis
Hungary - Foreign Minister Kinga Goncz
Iceland - Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottie
Italy - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
Latvia - Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins
Lithuania - Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas
Luxembourg - Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn
Netherlands - Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen
Norway - Foreign Minister Jonas Gahrstore
Poland - Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski
Portugal - Foreign Minister Luis Amado
Romania - Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu
Russia - Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
Slovak Republic - Foreign Minister Jan Kubis
Slovenia - Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel
Spain - Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos
Turkey - Foreign Minister Ali Babacan
United Kingdom - Foreign Minister David Miliband


3. (C) SUMMARY: At the June 27 informal NATO-Russia Council
(NRC) meeting in Corfu, Allies and Russia concurred that
PermReps should complete work on a road map to reinvigorate
NRC cooperation and dialogue; that mil-mil contacts should
resume; and that more high-level NRC political engagement in
NRC is necessary. FM Lavrov reiterated familiar Russian
complaints over NATO enlargement as violating the principle
of indivisibility of security and called for this to become a
legally binding commitment; reaffirmed that the Russian
decision to recognize the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and
South Ossetia was "immutable;" called for direct NATO-CSTO
cooperation; indicated Russia would be willing to restart
cooperation on Theater Missile Defense with NATO but only if
NATO missile defense plans were not linked to the U.S. Global
Missile Defense System; and called for Russian input to
NATO's nascent Strategic Concept. The Deputy Secretary noted
the need to respect all of the NRC founding principles
including transparency, human rights, the right of states to
choose their own security arrangements, and territorial
integrity, as well as the indivisibility of security. Allies
-- most sharply the UK, Canada and Poland -- criticized
Russian actions in Georgia, reaffirmed their support for
Georgian territorial integrity, and argued that it was in
Russia's interest to allow UN and OSCE monitors into Abkhazia
and South Ossetia. Many Allies stressed the need to break
the impasse on the CFE Treaty. Italian PM Berlusconi spoke
out most warmly -- and at the greatest length -- in urging a
renewal of the NATO-Russia relationship, arguing that past
differences must be put aside in order to avoid a return to
the Cold War. All ministers agreed on the need to rebuild
trust and confidence in the NRC. END SUMMARY.


SecGen and Allies Constructive
--------------

4. (C) The SYG opened the June 27 informal NATO-Russia
Council (NRC) Ministerial meeting with regret that it had not
proved possible to reach an agreement on a paper for
restructuring the NRC, while noting areas of shared interest
where NATO and Russia should enhance practical cooperation:
counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, Afghanistan, Search
and Rescue, and Civil Emergency Responses. He expressed his
perception that it would now be possible to resume mil-mil
cooperation, beginning with renewed Russian participation in
Operation Active Endeavor (OAE) in the Mediterranean Sea.
(Comment: The previous day, the Russian Mission to NATO had
made clear that Moscow was not yet prepared to agree to
participate in OAE.) He noted that while serious differences
remained and should not be underestimated -- in areas such as
Georgia, NATO enlargement and missile defense -- it was
important to take the NRC forward.


5. (C) Those Allies that spoke initially amplified the SYG's
remarks, largely balancing continuing concern over some
Russian actions with a strong call to complete work on the
NRC restructuring road map to open up future cooperation in
areas of shared interest. Italian PM Berlusconi went the
farthest in arguing for "forgetting" recent events in the
name of making Russia part of the "new" West and avoiding a
return to the Cold War. Greek PM Karamanlis noted that
failure to resolve the CFE impasse was also a dividing factor
in European security. German FM Steinmeier argued that a
number of security challenges cannot be solved against
Russia, not to mention without Russia, said it was time to
look forward (from Georgia),and called for more efforts,
including in the NRC on disarmament. Lithuanian FM Usackas
noted there remained serious questions about Russia's
fulfillment of international commitments but supported
further engagement, even offering to host a meeting of NRC
parliamentarians in Vilnius in 2010. Slovenian FM Rupel
countered that no single issue should be allowed to dominate
the agenda. Turkish FM Davutoglu called for more
parliamentary interactions, reminded Russia that the NRC was
founded on values, and urged a resolution of the CFE issue
based on the parallel actions package and maintaining the
flank provisions. Danish FM Moeller emphasized the need to
deepen existing areas of cooperation, including on CFE.
French FM Kouchner emphasized the importance of conveying to
the public that NATO and Russia can cooperate and noted
differences on CFE, enlargement, MD, and Georgia -adding that
Russian actions on the latter had seriously hurt confidence
and trust. UK, French, Spanish, and Norwegian FMs called for
more NRC meetings and especially high-level engagement among
NRC Ministers.

But Lavrov Slams NATO on enlargement and Georgia
-------------- --------------

6. (C) Lavrov cited two events as especially damaging to the
NATO-Russia relationship: the 2008 NATO Bucharest Summit
decision on enlargement that was taken "at the expense of
Russian security interests;" and the events of August 2008,
when NATO rejected Russia's plea for an emergency NRC session
to discuss the situation in Georgia. On the first, Lavrov
suggested, if NATO really believes in the indivisibility of
security that it be prepared to transform this political
commitment into a legal one. He argued that NATO enlargement
inevitably led to divisions in Europe. As for Georgia, he
accused some Allies of militarizing Georgia through the
provision of "offensive" weapons and accused Saakashvili of
exploiting the prospect of eventual NATO membership and
eventual defense guarantees to unleash aggression against its
breakaway regions. He claimed that Georgia was still
receiving weapons and that exercises on Georgian territory
were directed against the north, noted the recent Russian
proposals for continuing an OSCE mission in Georgia, and
urged others to focus on practical action to reduce tensions
rather than territorial integrity. He expressed "regret" at
the end of UNOMIG and OSCE missions (COMMENT: The irony did
not escape Ministers) and he said that the Russian position
on South Ossetia and Abkhazia was "irreversible."

Lavrov: Need to Restore Trust
--------------

7. He agreed that NATO and Russia needed to restore trust,
but this could only occur if Russia interacted with NATO on a
truly equal footing. He called for progress in defining the
meaning of "substantial numbers" of forces in the context of
basing and in completing the process of adapting the CFE
Treaty by building on the recent German-hosted seminar,
involving the JCG more actively in ongoing discussions, and
possibly even involving the NRC and armaments directors.


8. (C) Lavrov said that Russia had no intention of deploying
increased military forces on the borders of its neighbors,
adding that Moscow was actually withdrawing forces from the
Kaliningrad district. Citing Russian cooperative efforts on
Afghanistan with respect to non-lethal transit and
counternarcotics, he said it was time for NATO to cooperate
actively with the CSTO rather than ignore it as a way to
build confidence and trust, particularly on
counter-narcotics. He welcomed NRC theater missile defense
(TMD) cooperation, but stated categorically that no TMD
cooperation was possible if the NATO Active Layered Theatre
Ballistic Missile Defense (ALTBMD) program was linked with
the planned U.S. missile defense sites in Poland and the
Czech Republic. He said that the transformation of NATO in
responding to new threats might run counter to international
law and damage Russian interests. In this regard, he said
that Russia should be consulted as NATO revises its Strategic
Concept. He supported resumption of NATO-Russia mil-to-mil
cooperation. In conclusion, he returned to the theme of the
need for a European security treaty.

U.S. and UK Respond
--------------

9. (C) The Deputy Secretary stressed the NRC's potentially
important role. At the same time, he said that for this
potential to be realized all NRC founding principles would
have to be reaffirmed, including transparency, human rights,
the sovereign right of states to choose their own security
arrangements, and territorial integrity. Russia could not
emphasize the indivisibility of security at the expense of
these other fundamental principles. The Deputy Secretary
said that the NATO-Russia relationship had progressed in the
last decade, adding that further progress was possible but
that it would have to be adapted for the security challenges
of the new century. He called for resolving the CFE impasse.
He also agreed that the NRC should be an all-weather forum.
He strongly emphasized that the U.S. would not sacrifice its
core principles with respect to Georgia; at the same time, he
said that it was important not to let disagreements on
specific issues imperil cooperation in areas of common
interest. He agreed with Lavrov that the revision of NATO's
Strategic Concept should be transparent.


10. (C) UK FM Miliband said that actions needed to
correspond with words and that NATO-Russia cooperation should
not be based on zero-sum thinking. In a clear rebuttal to
Berlusconi, Miliband also said that while one should learn
from history, one must not forget it. He suggested that just
as Russia in Helsinki had expressed its discomfort with
Europe's current security architecture, many Allies felt
discomfort with respect to Russia's commitment to the
principle of preserving territorial integrity. He repeated
the SYG's call for higher-level political engagement on the
part of Allies and Russia alike in order for the NRC to begin
to realize its potential. Canada stressed the negative
impact of Russian actions in Georgia and its vetoes on the
OSCE and UNOMIG missions. Polish FM Sikorski sought to
reassure Russia on Missile Defense by promising full
transparency of any deployments and activities there. He
also warned that a second August crisis would be regarded as
an "unforgivable provocation."

The Secretary General Concludes
--------------

11. (C) In closing the meeting, the SYG summed up that the
NRC had resumed and restarted its political dialogue; that
NRC members would continue to work on an agreed document for
taking the NRC forward; and that mil-mil contacts should
proceed. He noted that Russia had been invited to the July 7
kick-off seminar on the Strategic Concept (Note: Russia was
not singled out for special attention; NATO has invited all
its partners to this event). He stressed the importance of
active, high-level political engagement to make the NRC a
success.
CLINTON