US embassy cable - 04ZAGREB1718

C O N F I D E N T I A L ZAGREB 001718 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/SCE - KABUMOTO, NP/RA - SONTAG 
DEPT ALSO FOR NP, T, AND L 
WARSAW FOR POL/MIL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/23/2014 
TAGS: KNNP, MNUC, PARM, PREL, PHSA, KTIA, HR, Defense Reform (Mil & NATO) 
SUBJECT: CROATIA ORGANIZING FOR PSI PARTICIPATION 
 
REF: A)ZAGREB 1588 B)STATE 173288 
 
Classified By: Poloff Justin Friedman, reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) 
 
SUMMARY AND COMMENT 
------------------- 
 
1. (C) Poloff met with MFA Head of Cooperative Security 
Section Drazen Hrastic on September 13 to discuss ref B 
guidance on how Croatia could enhance its participation in 
the Proliferation Security Initiative.  The GoC hopes to have 
its PSI interagency process and points of contact settled by 
the end of this year and would continue to seek guidance from 
Poland on this process.  Preparations for negotiating a 
bilateral shipboarding agreement with the U.S. will, at best, 
be completed by the end of this year.  The GoC will try to 
stress PSI-linked counter-WMD activities in its cooperative 
exercises with Adriatic Charter (A3) partners Albania and 
Macedonia.  We will continue to urge that the GoC get its own 
house in order and establish points of contact beyond the MFA 
to facilitate Croatia's participation in PSI.  END SUMMARY 
AND COMMENT. 
 
2. (C) Hrastic elaborated on ref A points that the GoC would 
organize its PSI activities as a subset of the work of an 
interagency National Commission for WMD and non-proliferation 
issues involving representatives from the Ministries of 
Foreign Affairs, Interior (police), Defense, Economy (export 
control), and Finance (Customs) plus the intelligence 
services.  The MFA would likely chair the Commission at the 
Assistant Minister level or higher.  He said that the 
Government of Poland would be assisting in creating this 
Commission.  Subsequently, Polish Embassy counselor Dariusz 
Wisniewski told us that PSI cooperation would be one of the 
main issues on the Polish agenda for President Mesic's 
upcoming visit to Warsaw Sept. 26-27.  Wisniewski said that 
the Polish Undersecretary of State (no name given) will be 
visiting Zagreb in the first week of October in part to 
strengthen Polish-Croatian military-to-military and 
military-industrial relations, as well as to follow up on PSI 
consultations. 
 
3. (C) Hrastic siad that the GoC was just starting to review 
the model text for the bilateral shipboarding agreement.  He 
speculated that it would be difficult to have full 
interagency agreement on the text before the end of this 
calendar year.  Hrastic's personal view was that there would 
not be any serious difficulties with any of the main points 
in the agreement, but given the number of ministries and 
agencies involved, it would take some time to reach internal 
consensus.  That said, Hrastic was confident that the 
agreement had political support, but that the GoC may ask the 
U.S. to help lobby to secure parliamentary approval when we 
reach that stage. 
 
4. (C) In response to the upcoming schedule of PSI 
activities, Hrastic repeated the offer for Croatia to host 
some kind of exercise in the future.  He said that as the GoC 
reviewed options for possible Adriatic Charter (A3) 
exercises, most thinking centered on WMD interdiction related 
activities which could naturally be of interest for other PSI 
participants in the Adriatic and/or Mediterranian region. 
This would be an important item for the A3 Foreign Ministers 
meeting which Croatia will host in November. 
 
FRANK 
 
 
NNNN