US embassy cable - 05BUCHAREST132

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUCHAREST 000132 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/NCE - WILLIAM SILKWORTH 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/14/2015 
TAGS: PARM, PREL, MASS, MARR, PGOV, AF, RO 
SUBJECT: ROMANIAN RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR CONTRIBUTIONS FOR 
AFGHAN ARMY; ESTABLISHMENT OF A PRT 
 
REF: STATE 4896 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL SECTION CHIEF ROBERT GILCHRIST FOR REASONS 1.4 
 A, B AND D 
 
1.  (C) This is an Action Request for State Department. See 
Paragraph 3. 
 
2.  (C) PolMilOff discussed possible Romanian contributions 
of weapons to the Afghan National Army (ANA) with Andreea 
Pastarnac, Director of the MFA's Middle East, Africa and 
Asia-Pacific Department, on January 12 (REFTEL).  Pastarnac 
stated that she would immediately prepare a briefing paper 
for PM Tariceanu and DefMin Atanasiu, stressing that the FM 
would not be the final decision maker on whether, and to what 
degree, Romania would donate weapons to the ANA. 
 
3.  (C) Pastarnac continued that Romania's "new political 
leadership" (to include the PM and DefMin) will require 
"political background" on the situation in Afghanistan.  She 
emphasized that she would "try to provide political 
information (to them)" giving a "positive" angle to our 
request.  She underscored that any background information the 
U.S. could provide about Afghanistan would help her "provide 
a very hard core of arguments" in support of the request. 
Embassy Bucharest requests State Department provide 
additional information, ideally in the form of a nonpaper, 
regarding the current political situation in Afghanistan and 
supporting REFTEL request for weapons donation to ANA. 
 
4. (C) In a separate meeting between DefMin Atanasiu and NATO 
Supreme Commander Jones on January 11, the Minister heard the 
General observe that a great deal of energy was going into 
expansion of the NATO role in Afghanistan, with PRTs serving 
as the "mechanism driving reconstruction."  Atanasiu 
responded to the suggestion that Romania might want to 
establish its own PRT by promising to examine such a proposal 
"with great attention," noting that the U.S. "might be 
surprised by a yes." (See also septel)  We believe this 
apparent readiness to assist with the Afghan Mission makes it 
all the more important that we keep the GOR informed on 
Afghan developments, particularly ass high-level leadership 
has just seen a 100 percent turnover. 
 
5. (U) Amembassy Bucharest's reporting telegrams are 
available on the Bucharest SIPRNet website: 
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/bucharest 
DELARE