TUNISIA: AMBASSADOR PUSHES CARTHAGE ON SCIENCE

UNCLAS TUNIS 000043 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR OES (SENSENEY AND LAWRENCE),S/P (BEHRMAN), S/SRMC (CHANDLER),AND R (NOOR-ALI); ALSO FOR NEA/MAG NSC STAFF FOR SENIOR DIRECTOR RAMAMURTHY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL TSPL TS SUBJECT: TUNISIA: AMBASSADOR PUSHES CARTHAGE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AGREEMENT REF: A. TUNIS 35 ¶B. TUNIS 8 ¶C. 09 TUNIS 938 ¶D. 09 TUNIS 928 ¶E. 09 TUNIS 869 ¶F. 09 TUNIS 757 Sensitive but unclassified; please protect accordingly. (SBU) In the course of the Ambassador's January 20 courtesy call, Presidential Chief of Staff Ahmed Ouederni cited science and technology (S&T) as an area in which the United States and Tunisia could deepen bilateral cooperation. In reply, the Ambassador followed up on previous ministerial meetings (refs B-E) by noting that the 2004 U.S.-Tunisia S&T Agreement had yet to be ratified by the Government of Tunisia. The Ambassador emphasized the importance of S&T cooperation as a component of the "new beginning" laid out in the President's Cairo speech and the Secretary's speech at the Forum for the Future in Marrakech. Ouederni was apparently knowledgeable about the S&T Agreement but did not offer any reply. On a related note, Ambassador raised the upcoming visit of Science Envoy Dr. Elias Zerhouni; Ouederni was familiar with Dr. Zerhouni and welcomed the visit. GRAY