TURKEY SHARES US VIEWS RE: TRANSITION TO AFGHAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 000072 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE, EUR/RPM, S/SRAP, SCA/A E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2020 TAGS: MARR MOPS NATO PREL SUBJECT: TURKEY SHARES US VIEWS RE: TRANSITION TO AFGHAN LEAD PROVINCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REF: SECSTATE 4108 Classified By: Pol-Mil Counselor Anthony Godfrey, Reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) Drawing from reftel talking points, we highlighted our views regarding the transition to Afghan lead provincial responsiblity with MFA NATO Department Section Head for NATO Operations Esra Dogan on January 15. Dogan expressed appreciation for the points and said Turkey fully agrees with the need to avoid sending the wrong signal regarding the provincial transition plan and to provide maximum support to the Afghan government, including at the upcoming London Conference. ¶2. (C) She relayed that Turkey will stand up a regional training center based in Camp Invicta in Kabul for Afghan National Security Forces in Kabul and will deploy 27 military trainers on February 2 to staff the center. According to Dogan, the center will have the capacity to train 600 Afghan personnel at any given time. She made clear that this contribution is in addition to those pledged by FM Davutoglu during the December NATO Foreign Ministerial. She said the GoT is also actively deliberating possible additional contributions to security training for Afghanistan as it prepares for a number of upcoming international meetings related to Afghanistan (Turkey's trilateral summit with Pakistan and Afghanistan on January 25, the Afghanistan Regional Summit that Turkey will host on January 26, the London Conference on January 28, and the February 4-5 NATO Informal Defense Ministerial in Istanbul),but declined to provide any details as internal interagency deliberations are still ongoing. Jeffrey "Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.s gov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turkey"