US embassy cable - 04MADRID4367

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 004367 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/WE AND WHA/AND 
NSC FOR FRIED AND VOLKER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/15/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, SP 
SUBJECT: SPAIN: AMBASSADOR MAKES FAREWELL CALL ON FOREIGN 
MINISTER 
 
Classified By: Ambassador George L. Argyros, reasons 1.4(b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) Ambassador met with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel 
Angel Moratinos November 10 at the Foreign Ministry for a 
farewell call.  Ambassador began by saying it was time to get 
the U.S.-Spain relationship moving forward.  Moratinos agreed 
and said Spain and the U.S. needed to start working on a 
positive agenda.  Moratinos said Spain could be helpful in 
many areas -- Spain has credibility in the Middle East and 
Latin America, for example.  Moratinos stated Zapatero wanted 
to work with President Bush to move relations forward and 
noted that the fact that President Bush had not returned 
Zapatero's congratulatory phone call was not playing well in 
the media.  "We need to improve relations and a return call 
would be a good gesture on the U.S.'s part," said Moratinos. 
 
2.  (C) Moratinos also stated the Zapatero government wants 
to build on the good relations the Aznar administration 
established, not tear them down.  Moratinos added, "In this 
Ministry, you know we are not always consulted on certain 
actions taken by others," likely referring to recent negative 
comments about the U.S. by Minister of Defense Jose Bono. 
 
3.  (C) Moratinos said he is committed to working hard on our 
bilateral relations, and suggested some topics that could be 
brought to the forefront as visible examples of cooperation 
between our two countries.  Fore example, Spain and the U.S. 
could renew the Joint Declaration on Defense Relations signed 
by Foreign Minister Pique and Secretary Albright in January 
2001.  Another idea was to celebrate the 10-year anniversary 
of the Transatlantic Agenda between the U.S, and the EU, 
which was originally a Spanish idea. 
 
4.  (C) Moratinos offered Spain's help in the Middle East. 
He said he knows all of the Palestinian leadership.  In 
particular, he knows Abu Mazen well, and if Mazen is elected 
Palestinian president, Moratinos offered to serve as an 
intermediary if the U.S. wished.  On his recent visit to 
Syria, Moratinos said the sole reason he went to Syria was to 
ask the Syrians to "behave" with regards to the Palestinians. 
 More generally, Moratinos noted that the country with the 
most experience in the Middle East, Spain, was not invited to 
participate in the Forum for the Future to be held in Morocco 
in December.  He understood why Spain could not attend as 
part of the G-8, but said perhaps Spain could go as guests of 
the Moroccan government.  Spain has excellent relations with 
Morocco and with November 2005 being the 10-year anniversary 
of the Barcelona Process, it may be appropriate for Spain to 
be part of this group.  However, Moratinos quickly added that 
they would accept a Moroccan invitation only if the U.S. had 
no objection. 
 
5.  (C) Ambassador Argyros suggested Spain make a strong 
gesture to show its support for the return of democracy to 
Iraq.  This would not require returning Spanish troops to 
Iraq but perhaps the GOS could train a large contingent of 
Iraqi police officers in Spain and publicize it widely. 
 
6.  (C) On Latin America, Moratinos noted that Venezuela's 
Chavez would be visiting Spain November 22-23.  Moratinos 
asked if the U.S. wanted to convey a message to Chavez. 
Ambassador asked Moratinos to raise the increasing drug 
trafficking problem in Venezuela  -- more and more shipments 
bound for Europe and the U.S. appear to be departing from 
Venezuela.  Moratinos welcomed a non-paper if we wanted to 
submit one. 
 
7.  (C) With respect to Afghanistan, Ambassador noted we had 
heard the Spanish ambassador to NATO has raised the 
possibility that Spain would be willing to staff a Provincial 
Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Afghanistan.  Moratinos was 
aware of the idea but said no decision had been made yet.  He 
noted it was not "totally unrealistic" Spain would 
participate in a PRT. 
 
8.  (C) The meeting ended with Moratinos informing the 
Ambassador he would be traveling to the U.S. early in 2005 to 
do "outreach work" with think tanks and government officials, 
and hoped to get an assessment of how Spain is thought about 
in the U.S. 
ARGYROS