BIH ACTION REQUEST: PERMREP SEEKS U.S. HELP TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000167 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/19/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV UNSC BK SUBJECT: BIH ACTION REQUEST: PERMREP SEEKS U.S. HELP TO PREPARE FOR POSSIBLE SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP Classified By: Ambassador Susan Rice for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY AND ACTION REQUEST. In a brief introductory call with Ambassador Rice, incoming Bosnia and Herzegovina PermRep Ivan Barbalic said his immediate focus is on preparing his mission to take on the extra workload that will come with Bosnia's likely Security Council membership in 2010-2011. Barbalic said he believes his mission is not yet ready to undertake the extra responsibilities and he has therefore made performing an assessment of the Mission's needs and obtaining the necessary resources from Sarajevo his top priority. Ambassador Rice offered U.S. assistance and experience to help Ambassador Barbalic to prepare for the responsibilities of membership, which Barbalic readily welcomed. USUN recommends early engagement with BiH to help them prepare for eventual Council membership. END SUMMARY AND ACTION REQUEST. ¶2. (C) Ambassador Ivan Barbalic, who arrived in New York in January as the new PermRep of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), paid a brief introductory call on Ambassador Rice on February ¶19. Barbalic said his current focus was on performing an assessment of the additional resources that would be necessary for his mission to carry out the extra responsibilities of Security Council membership. He said he understood that BiH needed to continue to focus on obtaining votes for the elections, but added that he realistically believed BiH's election to be likely, given the recent endorsement of the Eastern European Group. His more immediate focus, he said, was "less on campaigning, and more on creating a structure" for the BiH Mission in New York, which would need to be reformed in preparation for likely membership. He said he would at a minimum need to double the staff of the mission, which currently stood at 10. He also identified a need to improve communication between the UN Mission and the Foreign Ministry and tri-presidency in Sarajevo. The tri-presidency has made BiH election to the Council a top priority, he said, but the decision making process in the presidency is complex, and the Foreign Ministry can be "bureaucratic". ¶3. (C) Ambassador Rice offered assistance from the U.S. to help BiH understand the demands that will be placed on the mission and the Foreign Ministry as a Council member, and to help determine what skill sets might be needed in the mission during BiH's possible tenure on the Council. She asked Barbalic what his focus might be if BiH were to win a seat, and what it might bring to the Council. Barbalic answered, frankly, that he had not begun to think about areas of focus, as he was currently concentrating on building the capacity of his mission. He thought that BiH could bring to the Council its experience with multi-cultural dialogue and its experience as a state that had gone from being the recipient of international assistance to a decision maker on the international stage. Ambassador Barbalic readily welcomed any assistance the U.S. could offer to help prepare for 2010. ¶4. (C) COMMENT AND ACTION REQUEST. Barbalic pointed out in the meeting that he is a political appointee, not a career diplomat, and it was evident in this meeting that he also understands that he and his mission will face tremendous challenges in preparing to win election to the Council and in fulfilling Bosnia's responsibilities as a member. Like Barbalic, we believe BiH's election to the Council to be likely, and we will want to offer early assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina to prepare for 2010. We will follow up with the BiH mission in the coming weeks to see if there are specific areas where we could be useful. We recommend that the Department also reach out to the BiH Ministry of Foreign of Affairs to offer the benefit of our experience as a permanent member and to help with resource planning. END COMMENT AND ACTION REQUEST. Rice