GERMANY OUTLINES GOALS FOR NUCLEAR SECURITY SUMMIT

C O N F I D E N T I A L BERLIN 000149

SIPDIS

ISN FOR AMB. JENKINS
NSC FOR CONNERY AND HOLGATE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/03/2020
TAGS: PARM EAID TBIO IAEA NPT AORC CDG ENRG MUNC
PGOV, PREL, UNGA, GM
SUBJECT: GERMANY OUTLINES GOALS FOR NUCLEAR SECURITY SUMMIT
THIRD SHERPA MEETING

REF: A. STATE 07493

B. BERLIN 113

Classified By: Global Affairs Chief Donald L. Brown, for reasons 1.4 (b
) and (d)


1. (C) Summary. Germany has two main objectives for the
upcoming Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) sherpa meeting in
The Hague. Germany hopes to get closer to a consensus on
the NSS communiqu and work plan and also would like to
come to an agreement on a summit schedule that will
please Merkel's Chancellery. Germany made clear to the
Dutch its concerns about the burden of various
non-proliferation initiatives. Germany will send four
representatives to the sherpa meeting. End Summary.


2. (C) Econoff met with German MFA nuclear energy desk
officer Joerg Polster and Dutch political first secretary
Erik-Jan van Oosterhout to deliver the points from Ref A.
In response, Polster laid out the German goals for the
sherpa meeting, focusing on the summit agenda and
documents. Polster said the summit's current agenda
(dinner, followed by a day of meetings and press events)
will not hold the attention of 44 heads of state. While
Chancellor Merkel is planning to attend, he said, she
prefers a tight schedule. Polster proposed a dinner, with
a public communiqu signing ceremony the next morning,
followed by sherpa meetings and optional meetings for
principals. A day spent reading 44 national statements, he
said, would be unproductive and a bad idea.


3. (C) Polster focused on Germany's two main goals for the
summit communiqu and work plan. The first is to discuss
nuclear disarmament in a way that includes the views of
states without nuclear weapons. To accomplish this, he said
the
discussion must include controlling not only weapons-grade
uranium that could be used to make a traditional bomb ("the
biggest threat"),but also other fissile and radioactive
material that could be used to make a radioactive dispersal
device (RDD, or "dirty bomb"--"the most probable threat").
Polster also said the summit documents should also at least
mention the importance of securing nuclear facilities.


4. (C) Germany's second goal for the summit documents is to
separate discussions of the G8 and its Global Partnership
(GP) from the NSS. It is not the place, Polster said, of
the 44 NSS countries to release a document instructing the
G8 on how to conduct the GP's work. Polster said the
current drafts of the communiqu in which the NSS
participants "recognize the efforts" of the GP are good
steps in the right direction.


5. (C) Polster shared with the Dutch his views (Ref B) on
the burden Germany perceives from the proliferation of
non-proliferation initiatives and the need to find
"coherence" among them. He suggested discussing this at
the sherpa meeting and making it an agenda item at meetings
of the other non-proliferation initiatives.


6. (SBU) Although Ref A had asked for participation to be
limited to 3 individuals per country, Polster said that
Germany would be sending 4: MFA Ambassador Elbling,
Polster, Ministry of Economics official Axel Goehner and
Ministry of Environment Official Hockamp-Mack.
Murphy