POLAND: CANNOT TAKE LEAD IN NTM-I BORDER SECURITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L WARSAW 000212 SIPDIS FOR EUR/CE E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/25/2019 TAGS: MARR MOPS NATO PREL IZ PL SUBJECT: POLAND: CANNOT TAKE LEAD IN NTM-I BORDER SECURITY TRAINING MISSION REF: STATE 16188 Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR DAN SAINZ FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D ) ¶1. (C) In response to retel demarche, Lucyna Golc-Kozak, the Head of the Operations and Crisis Management Section at the Polish MFA, told us that Poland will not take the lead as the Principal Coordinating Nation for a border security program within the NATO training mission in Iraq. Golc-Kozak said that the Ministry of Interior had within the past week signalled a "very negative" response on the issue, saying they lacked the budget and qualified people with appropriate language skills. Golc-Kozak added that unless there was "intervention from the top level of the government, it would not be possible for us to take the lead role." She did not, however, rule out "some sort of participation" in the border security training program. ¶2. (C) Golc-Kozak said she looked forward to a POSITIVE resolution regarding status protections and human rights guarantees for the NATO training mission in Iraq. QUANRUD