US embassy cable - 04COLOMBO1597

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 001597 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, IO, IO/T, INL/C/CJ 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/27/2014 
TAGS: PREL, SNAR, AORC, IR, CE 
SUBJECT: COLOMBO PLAN: SUGGESTED ADJUSTMENTS TO US-PROPOSED 
AMENDMENT 
 
REF: A. STATE 184616 (NOTAL) 
 
     B. STATE 180466 (NOTAL) 
     C. COLOMBO 1173 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead.  1.4(b,d) 
 
1.  (U) This is an Action Request -- please see Para 8. 
 
2.  (U) BACKGROUND ON THE AMENDMENT:  The Colombo Plan 
Working group, created to discuss a proposed constitutional 
amendment on financial arrears, met on September 24.  In 
addition to the Secretary General and the Maldivian High 
Commissioner, acting as President of the Council, 
representatives from Korea, Pakistan, Nepal, Burma, Iran, 
Thailand, and Japan also attended.  During a briefing on the 
history of the amendment, the Secretary General made the 
point that the annual dues (14,500 USD) covered only the 
Secretariat's administrative costs.  The costs for the major 
 
SIPDIS 
programmatic components of the Colombo Plan were borne by the 
various member countries. 
 
3.  (U) Responding to a request by the Council President to 
brief on the U.S. amendment, poloff shared with the attendees 
that the United States was committed to ensuring member 
states' duty to pay the annual dues, but not at the expense 
of the loss of significant training and development 
opportunities for the citizens of those countries.  Building 
on the spirit of consensus of the organization, the United 
States' proposed amendment removed the right of countries in 
arrears to participate in such consensus decision-making. 
 
4.  (C) SUPPORT FOR THE U.S. AMENDMENT:  Nepal, Iran, and 
Pakistan expressed their support for the U.S. amendment, with 
the Pakistani representative noting that the U.S. amendment 
distinguished between restricting a country's administrative 
rights -- which the dues support -- and restricting a 
country's access to Colombo Plan programs -- funded 
separately from annual dues.  He also noted the U.S. proposal 
was in line with United Nations' principles on the issue of 
dealing with arrears.  Via letter to the Secretary General, 
the Government of Bhutan also indicated its support for the 
U.S. amendment.  Notwithstanding their view of the amendment, 
several countries requested that the term "calendar year" in 
the U.S. suggested wording be changed to "fiscal year." 
Poloff responded that the U.S. would not have an issue with 
this change.  The Japanese representative said he did not 
have specific instructions from Tokyo, but that Japan 
generally respected the consensus opinion.  He pointed out 
that, given the old amendment's focus on the right to 
participate in program activities versus the U.S. proposal 
focused on the right of decision making, he thought the 
former type of sanction could be more effective in making 
member states pay their arrears. 
 
5.  (C) SUGGESTED CHANGES TO THE U.S. AMENDMENT:  The 
representative from Thailand suggested changes to the U.S. 
amendment, notably that U.S. proposed wording "lose its right 
to participate in decision taking" be altered to "not be able 
to participate in program activities, except at its own 
expense."  Full text of Thailand's proposed changes follow in 
para 6 below.  (Poloff noted that the U.S.' position was 
intended not to block participants from training 
opportunities and did not know how Washington would respond 
to this suggestion.)  The Pakistani representative noted that 
the suggested change by Thailand was troubling in that it 
restricted program opportunities again.  The Secretary 
General said the proposed change in wording could represent a 
compromise that would allow member countries to retain the 
right of membership by not barring their right of decision 
making and still allow access to training opportunities (if 
the member countries paid their own way).  In a response to a 
question from poloff regarding the point at which a member 
country's financial support for access to training would 
outweigh the amount of annual dues, the Secretary General 
said that for the annual 14,500 USD contribution, on average, 
member states receive 50-60 scholarships valued at 
2,000-2,500 USD each (100,000-150,000 USD). 
 
6.  (SBU)  Begin text of changes proposed by Thailand: 
"A Member Government that is in arrears in the payment of its 
assessed financial contributions to the organization shall 
not be able to participate in program activities, except at 
its own expense if the amount of its arrears equals or 
exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the 
two preceding financial years.  The Council may, 
nevertheless, permit such a Member Government to participate 
in program activities if it is satisfied that the Member 
Government's failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the 
control of the Member Government and upon agreement to an 
approved amortization plan to repay all outstanding 
contributions.  A Member Government's participation in 
program activities shall be restored, as long as payments 
pursuant to such a plan continue to be paid.  Such an 
amortization plan should not exceed seven years in length." 
 
End text of proposed changes. 
 
7.  (U) The member countries took note of the proposed change 
by Thailand, the comments by the Secretary General and said 
they would have to discuss it with their capitals.  At the 
end of the meeting, the Secretary General said that he would 
not set a date for the next working group meeting at that 
time, but would wait to hear informally that the 
representatives present had heard back from their capitals on 
these developments. 
 
8.  (C) ACTION REQUEST:  Mission requests Department guidance 
on a response to the suggested wording change by Thailand. 
The Secretary General is keen for a compromise to resolve 
this multiple-year discussion on the issue of the amendment 
and the Thai suggested changes may represent that compromise. 
 Mission notes, however, it is unclear that member countries 
in arrears would actually pay for their nationals to 
participate in programs in the absence of financial support 
from the organization.  Unless the defaulting governments pay 
for such participation, the de facto result of Thailand's 
proposed amendment would be that those citizens who would 
most benefit from the programs are denied the opportunity 
because their government is in arrears.  If Department feels 
that the Thai proposed amendment is not acceptable, 
Department may wish to consider a demarche in Bangkok, which 
would probably have more effect than a representation here to 
the Thai Embassy.  END ACTION REQUEST. 
LUNSTEAD