Uzbekistan: Global Initiative Demarche Delivered, Russians

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000597 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/CEN AMEMBASSY ASTANA PASS TO USOFFICE ALMATY AMEMBASSY HELSINKI PASS TO AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/04/28 TAGS: PARM KNNP PREL PGOV KGIC PTER MNUC RS UZ SUBJECT: Uzbekistan: Global Initiative Demarche Delivered, Russians Advertise SCO Summit REF: STATE 035549; TASHKENT 183 CLASSIFIED BY: Steven Prohaska, Second Secretary, State, Pol-Econ; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) ¶1. (C) On April 24, Poloff and two Russian Embassy officials-Senior Counselor Alexey Mochulsky and Third Secretary Ekaterina Lazareva-jointly delivered reftel demarche on the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism plenary session to First Secretary Oybek Abdiev of Uzbekistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Note: Troika demarche was not possible due to the fact that the Netherlands does not have an Embassy in Tashkent. End note.) After Poloff briefed Abdiev on the June 15-17 event and handed him a diplomatic note, Mochulsky added that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was going to have a summit at the same time. Appearing agitated, he stressed to Abdiev that the SCO summit in Yekaterinburg would be at the Presidential level. Abdiev replied that he does not study such issues-a different part of MFA would consider this. (Note: Abdiev is from the UN and International Political Organizations Department and is the GOU's primary point of contact on Global Initiative matters. MFA has an SCO Section separate from this department. End note.) ¶2. (C) Abdiev noted that he had been informed of the upcoming Global Initiative plenary meeting during the recent meetings in South Korea. He said that he would send the information to appropriate GOU Ministers and agencies, and expressed hope that Uzbekistan will be able to participate. Abdiev also remarked that the meetings in South Korea had been very useful, interesting, and well-organized. The many presentations from various countries had been useful to Uzbekistan, as it had only recently joined the GICNT. NORLAND