POLAND BACKS U.S. APPROACH TO MEDVEDEV SECURITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L WARSAW 000594 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/10/2019 TAGS: PREL OSCE EU NATO PL SUBJECT: POLAND BACKS U.S. APPROACH TO MEDVEDEV SECURITY INITIATIVE REF: A. STATE 57920 ¶B. USNATO 237 Classified By: Political Counselor F. Daniel Sainz for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) The U.S. and Polish positions on Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev's European security initiative are virtually identical. Iwona Pawlikowska of the MFA Security Policy Department told us that the GoP fully supported the proposed U.S. approach (Ref A) for the OSCE informal ministerial on Corfu. Poland remains concerned about Russian interest in undermining existing regional organizations, especially NATO, but Poles are keeping an open mind and look forward to hearing more about the Russian initiative. (Poles assiduously avoid referring to Medvedev's initiative as a "proposal" due to its lack of structure.) Establishing an "agenda for dialogue" was the best format to encourage a genuine exchange of views, but Pawlikowska cautioned that it would be "useless" to consider drafting a new regional security treaty. This would be one of Poland's redlines, she said, since acceding to Moscow's request would reinforce its perception that it could simply demand revisions to existing rules of the game whenever it disagreed with Western member-states. Referring to the Greek Chairman's recent Food for Thought paper, Pawlikowska said Poland would insist that all OSCE members honor current treaty commitments and identify compliance shortfalls. ¶2. (C) Warsaw also welcomes the focus on "soft" issues in the U.S. approach -- notably absent in the Medvedev initiative -- but was unsure of Russia's reaction to these suggestions, especially those pertaining to an OSCE mechanism to investigate human rights cases, and norms for protecting journalists. Pawlikowska said Poland appreciated the focus on climate change and energy security, and agreed that the OSCE was the best forum for discussing Medvedev's initiative. It was also crucial to coordinate with the EU. Pawlikowska said the Union's views were similar to those of NATO allies, but both organizations needed to maintain contact. In any case, Medvedev's initiative would be discussed at a June 16 meeting of the EU's Political and Security Committee. ¶3. (C) Analysts at the influential Polish Institute for International Relations (PISM) generally concurred with the GoP's position, but advocated a somewhat more aggressive Western response to the initiative. Lukasz Kulesa, PISM's Acting Director of Research, said the West should not refrain from criticizing Moscow for its actions in Georgia last August or for its continued refusal to resolve the frozen conflicts. Letting Moscow off the hook for not fulfilling its Istanbul commitments would only encourage further Russian intransigence. Kulesa said the GoP would not want to be singled out as overly critical of Russia but would certainly support measures aimed at holding the Russians' feet to the fire on existing commitments. He warned of Moscow's likely "historical re-interpretation" in an effort to cast NATO's Eastern enlargement and negotiation of the Adapted CFE Treaty as the exploitation of Russian weakness during the 1990's. QUANRUD