ALLIES WANT STRONG SRSG AND LONDON PUSHES HARD ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 USNATO 000018 NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/13/2020 TAGS: PREL MOPS AF MCAP NATO SUBJECT: ALLIES WANT STRONG SRSG AND LONDON PUSHES HARD ON SECURITY TRANSISTION AT REGIONAL COMMAND - SOUTH MEETING Classified By: Ambassador Ivo Daalder for reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C/NF) Summary. On January 12, Regional Command - South (RC-S) troop contributing nations discussed the key deliverables for the January 28 London conference on Afghanistan, focusing on civilian coordination and transition. The UK said London would push hard for the Council to expeditiously approve and agree to the NATO Military Committee's endorsement to start detailed planning for ISAF Phase 4 Transition in time for the London conference. RC-S nations also reiterated strong support for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) as the lead coordinating authority for international civilian assistance. The RC-South representatives cautioned that, if the candidate for the NATO Senior Civilian Representative (SCR) was a bigger political heavyweight than the new UN's Senior Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG),they would insist that the North Atlantic Council (NAC) narrow the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the SCR to ensure that it does not encroach upon the UN's role in Afghanistan. Ambassador Daalder stressed the need for the NAC to be consulted during the NATO Secretary General's (SYG) decision making process for choosing the new SCR and determining his TOR, stressing that this would be important in getting allied buy-in necessary for the SCR to play a larger, coordinating role. Daalder added that the U.S. would certainly consider this when determining its willingness to be coordinated. END Summary. -------------- UK Curiously Pushing Hard on TLSR -------------- ¶2. (C/NF) At the January 12 meeting of Regional Command - South nations, the UK said London would push hard for the Council to expeditiously approve the start of detailed planning for ISAF Phase 4 Transition in time for the January 28 London conference on Afghanistan. He said "Transition" was a key deliverable for London and that the intent was to have a discussion on the Transfer of Lead Security and Transition with the Afghans on January 28. London's representative said that it supported NATO developing a political assessment on the strategy for "Transition", but did not want the development of this assessment to hold up the Council's endorsement to start "Transition" planning. Ambassador Daalder said he would discuss the UK's preference to quickly endorse "Transition" planning with Washington, but warned that a parallel political assessment process would likely have to be approved at the same time as NATO's detailed planning for ISAF Phase 4 Transition. -------------- The Mandate Matters -------------- ¶3. (C/NF) RC-South troop contributors reiterated their strong support for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) as the lead coordinating authority for international civilian assistance. All agreed on the need for ISAF to better coordinate its civilian efforts, but expressed a strong preference for the UN SRSG candidate to be a stronger political personality than the candidate for an enhanced SCR's office. Nations said they do not want the personality of the new SCR to politically overpower the UN SRSG position and the UN's traditional roles and responsibilities of coordinating Afghanistan's civilian assistance. The RC-South representatives cautioned that, if the candidate for the SCR was a larger political heavyweight than the new UN SRSG, they would insist that the NAC narrow the TOR for the SCR to ensure that it did not encroach upon the UN's role. USNATO 00000018 002 OF 002 ¶4. (C/NF) The Netherlands said that in order to avoid "mission creep" clarity to the SCR's mandate would need to be firmly established. Canada suggested that the Alliance use the terms of NATO's Afghanistan Cooperation Program to define the SCR's role. ¶5. (C/NF) The UK PermRep acknowledged that strengthening the role of the SCR would be an on-going process, but pointed out that an enhanced SCR should focus on coordinating Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) efforts not the PRTs themselves, in order to preserve national interests. While acknowledging that the NAC does not vote on the SCR candidate, Ambassador Daalder said the SYG should invite the NAC to discuss the candidate and the job's requirements. Daalder also said that this would be important to get the Allied buy-in necessary to allow the SCR to play a larger coordinating role, adding that it would be an important part of determining how much the U.S. would allow itself to be coordinated by the SCR. -------------- Danes Request More Kandaks -------------- ¶6. (C/NF) The Danish Military Representative said the Danish military would like more kandaks (batallions) to partner with in Helmand province. He requested that his government have an opportunity to do full partnering with Afghan kandaks in the future. In his view, the level of Afghan National Security Forces available for partnering is very low in Helmand and there are, currently, no plans to assign additional kandaks to the Danish area of responsibility. The U.S. and the UK promised to look into the matter and follow-up with the Danish mission. -------------- London Logistics -------------- ¶7. (C/NF) The UK PermRep said the London conference would be an opportunity for NATO to contribute deliverables on security and an enhanced ISAF civilian engagement in Afghanistan. He said the conference would be held at the Lancaster House and a maximum of four participants from each delegation will be invited. ¶8. (C/NF) The full speaking notes of the UK PermRep at the RC - South meeting, including points on London's goals for the January 28 conference, have been emailed to EUR/RPM and SRAP. DAALDER