KEY PARIS PACT MEMBERS URGE RESULTS RATHER THAN MEETINGS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 UNVIE VIENNA 000284

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PREL PTER SNAR UN AF PK CA RU IT UK SW AS
NL, FR, GM

SUBJECT: KEY PARIS PACT MEMBERS URGE RESULTS RATHER THAN MEETINGS

REF: A: UNVIE VIENNA 249

B. UNVIE 006


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SUMMARY
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1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In an informal June 9 meeting, key Paris Pact
members agreed to continue their support for the Pact. They also
agreed to use 2010 to review the implementation of recommendations
from three past roundtables -- precursors, financial flows, and
cross-border management. In addition, they proposed benchmarks to
guide the review. For precursors, proposed benchmarks include
seizure statistics, prosecution rates, countries involved in
operations, and information sharing. For financial flows, proposed
benchmarks are prosecution rates, ratification of the relevant
United Nations instruments to combat terrorist financing, number of
accounts seized, and implementation of legal frameworks to combat
corruption. For cross-border management, proposed benchmarks are
seizures at the border, and quality and effectiveness of
cross-border information sharing. Participants at the June 9 meeting
agreed to have these ideas considered by the next annual Policy
Consultative Group (PCG) meeting scheduled for November/December

2009. On behalf of the June 9 meeting participants, Counselor
forwarded these conclusions to the independent consultant who will
include the review of past round tables as a recommendation in his
evaluation report on the Paris Pact for UNODC. Besides the
conclusions on the review and the benchmarks, meeting participants
also heard Russia advocate partnership with regional bodies in which
Russia plays a leadership role. Russia and France also advocated
greater Paris Pact involvement in the implementation of UN Security
Council resolutions. END SUMMARY.

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Challenges for the Paris Pact
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2. (SBU) In the wake of the briefing by the independent consultant
(Neil Bailey of UK's Omega Consultancy) UNODC hired to evaluate the
Paris Pact (Ref A),Counselor hosted an informal meeting of core
Paris Pact member states on June 9 to discuss ways to improve the
Pact's operational effectiveness. Representatives from Australia,
Canada, France Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden and U.K.
attended this meeting. All present agreed that their countries
would continue to support the Paris Pact because it serves a useful
political purpose by bringing together countries some of which have
few other channels for interacting with one another. Nevertheless,
all have been frustrated by the paucity of concrete results from the
15 annual expert roundtables which have been held since 2003.


3. (SBU) Canada criticized UNODC for giving the same presentations
at expert roundtables and at the annual Policy Consultative Group
(PCG) meetings. Some also criticized the growing propensity for
certain countries to send diplomats rather than experts to the
roundtables, thus directing focus on political rather than
operational issues. UK stressed the importance of roundtable
participation by "the right people and the right countries,"
particularly because the Paris Pact had not been well-attended by
critical central Asian countries. Counselor suggested establishing
focal points of contact to encourage information sharing among
experts. France noted that focal points already exist in the
Automated Donor Assistance Mechanism (ADAM) but are insufficient.
Others did not embrace the focal points idea, claiming that ADAM has
been largely ineffective.

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Picking Roundtables for Review
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4. (SBU) Counselor proposed that member states should use the next
annual Policy Consultative Group (PCG) meeting, in November/December
2009, to review past accomplishments, rather than to choose new
topics for the next three roundtables in 2010. All agreed the Pact
should not be a forum for indefinite roundtables, and member states
should find ways to evaluate the implementation of recommendations
from past round tables. They also agreed with Counselor's
suggestion to choose two or three past roundtables for such an
evaluation. There was consensus that past roundtables on
precursors, financial flows and cross-border cooperation should be
selected for such review, and that instead of selecting new topics,
the November/December 2009 PCG meeting should adopt the idea to
review the three past roundtables in 2010.

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Choosing Benchmarks

UNVIE VIEN 00000284 002 OF 003


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5. (SBU) Participants then discussed benchmarks for measuring the
results of these past roundtables. Counselor noted that on the
margins of the last PCG meeting in December 2008, Ambassadors (of
the countries represented at the June 9 meeting) had urged UNODC to
develop metrics to measure the success of the Pact (Ref B). Germany
suggested that it would be helpful to solicit UNODC and country
feedback on implementation to date. Canada reminded attendees that
some recommendations had been implemented and integrated into
UNODC's Rainbow Strategy, so examining those recommendations would
be a good place to start with the review. Following French
suggestions, meeting participants reached consensus that for
precursors, benchmarks should include seizure statistics,
prosecution rates, countries involved in operations, and information
sharing. For financial flows, the benchmarks should include
prosecution rates, ratification of the relevant United Nations
instruments to combat terrorist financing, number of accounts
seized, and implementation of legal frameworks to combat corruption.
For cross-border management, proposed benchmarks are seizures at
the border, and quality and effectiveness of cross-border
information sharing.

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Russian and French Comments
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6. (SBU) Russia advocated greater Paris Pact cooperation with
regional bodies such as the Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). It also
urged Paris Pact involvement in the implementation and enforcement
of UN Security Council resolutions by listing suspected traffickers
and terrorists. France supported the use of UN Security Council
resolutions, especially in the area of sanctions. However, the
French representative suggested that Vienna's Friends of Afghanistan
Group, rather than the Paris Pact, may be a more suitable venue for
tackling the issue of sanctions.


7. (SBU) In addition, France noted that other regions, such as the
Andean countries, were modeling parts of their multilateral
counternarcotics efforts on the Paris Pact. He also urged improved
regional cooperation in Central Asia, an early goal of the Pact
which he said has not yet been realized.

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Follow up Action
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8. (U) Counselor summarized the conclusions for the attendees, and
offered to forward them to independent consultant Neil Bailey for
incorporation in the evaluation report he is preparing for UNODC.
She circulated the drafted conclusions among the meeting
participants on June 10. (Text follows in Annex, para 10.) With no
objections from them, she forwarded the conclusions to Bailey on
June 15. Bailey replied that he agreed with the conclusions and
would include the review of past round tables as a recommendation in
his report to the UNODC.

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Comment
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9. (SBU) The Paris Pact was conceived in 2003 from a great idea -
to coordinate and improve regional cooperation to fight Afghan
narcotics. Although it has definitely achieved some successes, it
also has become more of a forum for meetings than for action. UNODC
was wise to seek an independent evaluation - the second in the Pact
history - before proceeding to a third phase. We hope that the
conclusions from our informal June 9 meeting will help the Paris
Pact to focus more on results rather than meetings. End Comment.

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Annex
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9. (U) The following text was circulated among the June 9 meeting
participants and forwarded to the independent consultant.

BEGIN QUOTE: Representatives of the following permanent missions in
Vienna met June 9 to discuss ways to make Paris Pact more effective.
The participating countries in the meeting were: Australia, Canada,
France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, U.K. and U.S.

The participants made the following recommendations to improve Paris
Pact: 1) All present want to continue to support the Paris Pact, 2)
However, all agree that the Pact should not be an indefinite round

UNVIE VIEN 00000284 003 OF 003


of roundtables. Instead, there should be some stocktaking of how
recommendations from past roundtables have been implemented. A
practical way to do it is to choose two or three of past roundtables
for in-depth follow up and review, 3) Therefore, at the annual
policy consultative group meeting in November/December 2009, member
states should decide not decide new topics for the three roundtables
in 2010. Instead, they should decide to use 2010 to review the
implementation of the recommendations of three past roundtables, 4)
There was agreement to choose the following three roundtables for
review: a)Precursors, b)Financial flows, c)Cross-border
cooperation., 5) There was also agreement that benchmarks should be
established for such review. Proposed benchmarks include: a) For
precursors: seizure statistics, prosecution rates, countries
involved in operations, and information sharing; b) For Financial
flows: Prosecution rates, ratification of FATF, number of accounts
seized, implementation of legal frameworks to combat corruption, and
efforts to combat terrorist financing; implementation of the UNSC
resolutions against terrorist financing., c) Cross-border
cooperation, with focus on the immediate neighbors at this point
(Pakistan and Iran): information-sharing, communication, joint
border exercises. END QUOTE


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