OSCE: 2009 ANNUAL GLOBAL EXCHANGE OF MILITARY

UNCLAS USOSCE 000111 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR VCI/CCA, VCI/NRRC, EUR/RPM, EUR/PRA, EUR/CARC, SCA/CEN, SCA/RA, PM/WRA, ISN/CPI JCS FOR J-5 OSD FOR ISA (PERENYI) NSC FOR HAYES USUN FOR LEGAL, POL EUCOM FOR J-5 CENTCOM FOR J-5 UNVIE FOR AC GENEVA FOR CD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PARM PREL KCFE OSCE XG SUBJECT: OSCE: 2009 ANNUAL GLOBAL EXCHANGE OF MILITARY INFORMATION ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Forty-six OSCE participating States, including Russia, provided worldwide information on their national military forces as part of the annual Global Exchange of Military Information, a confidence building mechanism originating in the 1992 Helsinki Document. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) Forty-six participating States provided their Global Exchange of Military Information (GEMI) data on time on April 29-30. Russia provided its data electronically to the OSCE Secretariat but did not distribute and data directly to the other delegations. The participating States with military forces that did not provide required information were: Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Six OSCE States lack military forces: Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City. ¶3. (SBU) A U.S. data experts' team hosted the automated workshop for GEMI data and received 45 sets of electronic data, including from Russia; fourteen of these 45 sets of data had been provided at the December data exchange. A CD with all the data submitted at the workshop is distributed to all States that participate in the workshop. ¶4. (SBU) The U.S. also participated in the "hard copy" exchange for the GEMI held April 30. The U.S. and many other delegations provided GEMI data to the OSCE Secretariat for posting to the delegates' website. ¶5. (U) The GEMI is a politically binding agreement implemented under the auspices of the OSCE and is designed to promote confidence building among participating States through the provision on information on national military forces located throughout the world. Stemming from a proposal in the 1992 Helsinki Document's Program for Immediate Action, participating States agreed to the GEMI at the 1994 CSCE Review Conference in Budapest. SCOTT