Wikileaks - CCII

35239 6/23/2005 13:04 05BUCHAREST1427 Embassy Bucharest UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available. UNCLAS BUCHAREST 001427

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR EUR/NCE - WILLIAM SILKWORTH

E.O. 12958, AS AMENDED: N/A TAGS: PARM, MARR, MOPS, PGOV, PREL, MD, GG, RO, NATO, CFE SUBJECT: ROMANIA RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT CFE TREATY ISSUES

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY

1. (SBU) MFA Strategic Policy Director General Cristian Istrate and NATO Division Director Mirela Maghiar discussed with PolChief and PolOff June 9 Romanian concerns regarding the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty. Subsequent to the June 9 meeting, Maghiar provided a nonpaper (set forth in full below) that outlines the GOR position and states, in part, that the GOR would "highly appreciate more in-depth US-Romania consultations on the CFE issues, with particular focus on: the implications of the Russian-Georgian declaration of 30 May 2005 for the NATO policy on CFE issues; the US approach on the CFE Adapted Treaty in the perspective of the 2006 CFE Review Conference." 2. (SBU) The text of the GOR nonpaper follows:

ROMANIA'S COMMENTS ON THE RECENT DISCUSSION IN NATO/NRC ON THE CFE ADAPTED TREATY

--The recent negotiations on the Statement of the NRC meeting of Defence Ministers triggered a very controversial debate among the NATO allies on the CFE issues and on how to reflect, in an NRC ministerial statement, the significance of the Russian - Georgian political declaration on the Russian military basis in Georgia. --From the beginning, Romania stated its preference that a CFE-related paragraph not be included in the above-mentioned statement, in the absence of an in-depth analysis in NATO of the implications of the Russian-Georgia political agreement over the CFE Adapted Treaty and the agreed NATO language on CFE issues. --Moreover, up to now, the CFE topic has never been addressed in the NRC meetings of Defence Ministers and the topic was not even included on the agenda of the 9th of June defence ministerial meeting of the NATO-Russia Council. --However, Romania understood the interest of some allies to highlight the relevance of the Russian - Georgian declaration and accepted, therefore, the negotiations in HLTF over a pre-coordinated allied language. The text proposed by the United States was widely accepted and ensured reference both to general NATO language on the CFE Adapted Treaty and explicit mentioning of the remaining Istanbul commitment on R. Moldova. --For Romania, this explicit mentioning of the Russian CFE commitments regarding R. Moldova in the context of a positive message of NATO on the Russian-Georgian declaration was extremely important, in order to highlight that the Russian CFE commitments are not yet entirely fulfilled. --In our view, the absence or indirect reference to the remaining CFE commitments, in an official high-level NATO statement, could have led to the interpretation that the withdrawal of the Russian military and ammunition from Transnistria is no longer linked with the fulfillment of the Russian Istanbul commitments. This would favour the Russian position that its CFE-commitments are already achieved. --The divergent views among Allies on these aspects and the tendency of most Allies to divert from the agreed HLTF language and to nuance Allied position on such a sensitive issue without prior debate in NATO is of concern for Romania. --In our evaluation, the position of some Allied States on CFE issues clearly signals the tendency to promote a more flexible approach regarding NATO's policy of conditionality between the ratification of CFE Adapted Treaty and the complete fulfillment of the Russian Istanbul commitments. --We believe that no explicit or implicit altering of the NATO common policy on the CFE Adapted Treaty should be made through negotiations over statements, without serious analysis and debate in NATO. --In this context, we would highly appreciate more in-depth US-Romania consultations on the CFE issues, with particular focus on: - the implications of the Russian-Georgian declaration of 30 May 2005 for the NATO policy on CFE issues; - the US approach on the CFE Adapted Treaty in the perspective of the 2006 CFE Review Conference.

End Text of GOR Nonpaper

3. (U) Amembassy Bucharest's reporting telegrams are available on the Bucharest SIPRNET Website: www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/bucharest.

DELARE