CWC: AMHET UZUMCU OF TURKEY NOMINATED BY

C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 000617 SIPDIS STATE FOR ISN/CB, VCI/CCA, L/NPV, IO/MPR SECDEF FOR OSD/GSA/CN,CP> JOINT STAFF FOR DD PMA-A FOR WTC COMMERCE FOR BIS (BROWN, DENYER AND CRISTOFARO) NSC FOR LUTES WINPAC FOR WALTER E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2019 TAGS: PARM PREL AORC AU FI GM ID TU UK AG SUBJECT: CWC: AMHET UZUMCU OF TURKEY NOMINATED BY CONSENSUS TO BE NEXT OPCW DIRECTOR-GENERAL REF: STATE 107329 Classified By: Robert Mikulak for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) This is CWC-60-09. ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu (Turkish Perm Rep to the UN Office in Geneva) received a consensus nomination by the 41-member Executive Council to be the next Director- General (DG) of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The nomination occurred on Friday, October 16, after Ambassador Peter Gottwald (Germany) and Ambassador Benchaa Dani (Algeria) withdrew their candidacies and endorsed Uzumcu. Uzumcu's consensus nomination will now be forwarded to the Fourteenth Session of the Conference of the States Parties (November 30-December 3),where it is expected to be approved. Uzumcu will assume office not later than July 25, 2010 when the term of the current DG (Rogelio Pfirter, Argentina) expires. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) The DG contest unexpectedly came to a rapid conclusion following five straw polls over the period of October 9-16. The key event occurred immediately before straw poll number 5 (November 15) when the UK delegation announced that London was withdrawing the candidacy of Mr. John Freeman (current Deputy Director-General). In straw poll number 5, all of Freeman's first place votes (six) surprisingly went to Uzumcu )- Gottwald picked up none. This gave Uzumcu a total of 21 first place votes, to Gottwald's nine, and Dani's eleven. (In the event of a formal vote in the EC, 28 votes would have been necessary to obtain the required two-thirds majority.) With the outcome clear, Gottwald and Dani were persuaded by EC Chair Ambassador Lomonaco (Mexico) and others to support Uzumcu, rather than continue to drag the process out to a politically messy conclusion. ¶3. (SBU) The first three straw polls showed consistency with Uzumcu holding a steady lead in first place votes over all other candidates. However, no candidates withdrew before the beginning of the EC. Following the third straw poll on October 13, the first during the Council session, Ambassador Aapo Polho (Finland) and Ambassador Anton Thalman (Switzerland) jointly withdrew their candidacies. The next day, just before the fourth poll Indonesia announced that Ambassador Sudjadnan was also withdrawing. After the fourth straw poll on October 14, Uzumcu carried zero "no votes" for the first time. In other words, all 41 members of the Council supported him as either their first, second, or third place candidate. The Qeither their first, second, or third place candidate. The other remaining candidates (Dani, Gottwald, Freeman) each carried 12 or more "no votes." ¶4. (SBU) Ambassador Dani deserves much praise for his graceful and diplomatic exit, which he couched more around his support for Uzumcu, than his own withdrawal. Informal discussions on the margins indicate fairly wide support for an African Deputy Director-General, perhaps from Algeria (though it will not be Ambassador Dani). The Deputy Director-General is chosen by the Director-General and not by the Executive Council. ¶5. (C) Discussions on the margins indicate that Uzumcu picked up all of Freeman's first place votes, which came primarily from other EU countries. While the reasons for this surprising development and the friction within the European Union over this issue is not yet known, it is clear that the inability of the German and UK candidates (and their capitals) to work out an acceptable compromise doomed both candidacies and worked to Uzumcu's favor. ¶6. (U) MIKULAK SENDS. LEVIN