SCENESETTER FOR VISIT OF CRO MOD STATE SECRETARY,

C O N F I D E N T I A L ZAGREB 000255

SIPDIS

OSD FROM DATT
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SCE


E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/18/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV KPAO MOPS MARR NATO HR DEFENSE REFORM

SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR VISIT OF CRO MOD STATE SECRETARY,
PJER SIMUNOVIC

Classified By: COL Brendan McAloon, DATT, for reasons 1.4
(b) & (d).


1. (C/NF) Atmospherics. Sir, the visit of Croatian State
Secretary (Deputy Minister for Plans and Policy),Pjer
Simunovic (P-YER sh-MUUN-o-vitch),is the first trip to the
U.S. by a senior Croatian MOD official since Crotia joined
NATO in April of this year. It comes at a time when the
excellent security relationship between Croatia and the
United States continues to strengthen. Croatia appreciated
the United States being one of the earliest countries to
ratify Croatia's NATO accession protocol and for the support
we provided during the row with Slovenia that potentially
threatened the timing of Croatia,s NATO accession.


2. (C/NF) Atmospherics continued. I don,t expect that the
Croatians will have a laundry list of requests for support
for you. Croatian pride normally keeps them from requesting
financial assistance but if it is offered they won,t refuse.
If on the other hand we have support requirements that we
would like Croatia to fulfill, it would be best to couch them
as requests for help to a friend and ally.


3. (C/NF) Budget. By NATO standards of accounting, the
Croatian MOD exceeded NATO,s guideline of two percent of
GDP. Due to the financial crisis, however, Croatia was
forced to cut 100 million USD from its defense budget. These
cuts will affect acquisitions not currently in the pipeline
and training not directly tied to deployments. The Croatian
government is looking anxiously at this year,s tourist
season which provides up to 20 percent of GDP in hopes that
it holds the seeds of recovery.


4. (C) OMLTs. Croatia currently has three OMLTs on the
ground in Afghanistan as part of its 299 troop contribution
to ISAF. Croatia mans both the Combat Arms and Garrison
OMLTs fully, and shares the manning of its Combat Support
OMLT with its state partner, the Minnesota National Guard.
Croatia pays all expenses for the OMLTs with the exception of
U.S.-provided stratlift. They have no operational
limitations on deployment or ROE, but do have two caveats: no
CT and no Counter-narcotics operations. Croatia has
expressed a desire to deploy a PRT in the future but we
assess that the current focus on OMLTs is the best use of its
capabilities in the near to mid term. Mr. Simunovic has
already pledged to us to re-examine the deployment of
Croatia,s contingent with an eye to increasing the number of
OMLTs and trainers it can provide. Additionally, the MOD has
already started building the case to present to Parliament to
increase the ISAF contingent from 300 to 400 in 2011.
Regarding communications within Afghanistan, the Croatian
OMLT was caught in a Catch-22 in that as a non-NATO force
contributor, Croatia was not allowed to have the required
NATO COMSEC systems. Although Croatia,s NATO accession has
made the COMSEC problem moot, we still have to contend with
the acquisition backlog for the required radios for some
time.


5. (C) KFOR: The Croatian Parliament has authorized the
deployment of two helicopters and 20 airmen to Kosovo in

2009. The Croatians will deploy two of their new MI-171Sh
lift helicopters. This will be the first deployment outside
of Croatia for the Air Force. Croatia has expressed a
willingness to deploy two more helicopters to KFOR next year.



6. (C) Peacekeeping: Croatia prides itself on its transition
from a security consumer with UN Peacekeepers on its
territory to a security provider with Croatian Armed Forces
(CAF) elements involved in UN peacekeeping operations around
the globe, to include 98 CAF personnel on the UN mission in
the Golan Heights. Croatia is in the process of implementing
its plans to increase and sustain its PKO contributions from
around 250 soldiers in 2007 to 600 soldiers by 2010.


7. (C) ASPA: The U.S. FMF and IMET programs were suspended in
July 2003 due to American Serviceman Protection Act (ASPA)
sanctions. As a result, in the past few years the CAF
depended entirely upon national resources to accomplish its

NATO partnership goals and to equip its forces for ISAF.
Croatia is the only ISAF partner and new NATO invitee that
accomplished its transformation and financed its ISAF
commitments without FMF or Coalition Support Funding. The
suspension of IMET during this time has had a telling impact
throughout the CAF. Most notable is the lack of
U.S.-educated staff officers at the senior and mid-grade
officer level to fill critical billets on the MOD, CAF, and
NATO Staffs.


8. (SBU) FMF/IMET levels. Croatia did not receive any FMF
in FY08, and will receive only 1 million dollars in FMF in

2009. IMET is similarly under-funded for a NATO invitee with
only 309K in FY08 (including the 9K in end-of-year fallout)
and is projected to receive 500K in FY09. The proposed
budget numbers trend better in FYs 10 and 11.

BRADTKE