US embassy cable - 05PARIS488

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 000488 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/24/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, SNAR, EAID, AF, FR, NATO 
SUBJECT: THE FRENCH ON AFGHANISTAN: SYNERGY NOT INTEGRATION 
FOR ISAF/OEF; NO NEW FORCE CONTRIBUTION FOR NOW; IDEAS ON 
COUNTERNARCOTICS 
 
REF: SECSTATE 02743 
 
Classified By: political minister counselor Josiah Rosenblatt for reaso 
ns 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY.  In a series of meetings on January 21 and 
22, Coordinator for Afghanistan Ambassador Maureen Quinn and 
a State, Department of Defense/OSD and JCS team met with 
several representatives from the French MFA, MOD and Elysee 
(President's office) to discuss the French outlook and 
commitment in Afghanistan.  On the whole, officials expressed 
optimism in the wake of what they deemed a successful 
presidential election.   The officials expressed concerns 
over ISAF expansion, the proposed ISAF/OEF "merger", and a 
narcotics problem that all agreed is Afghanistan's biggest 
challenge in the year ahead.  The French offered their views 
on Phase II commitments (they are looking into what they can 
give and will push their European partners to do the same). 
Bertrand Besancenot, the MOD Diplomatic Adviser who had just 
returned from Russia, suggested allowing the Russians to 
engage more in Afghanistan though he recognized that the 
coalition must be careful in how and to what extent Russia 
should play a role and said Alliot-Marie would soon offer 
ideas on counternarcotics (para. 8). End Summary. 
 
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Political Atmosphere: French Positive on Upcoming 
Parliamentary Election 
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2.  (U) French officials were optimistic on Afghanistan's 
future, which Camille Grand, Deputy Diplomatic Adviser to the 
Minister of Defense, characterized as "a success story" and 
Presidency Advisor for Strategic Affairs, Laurent Bili, said 
was "a bigger success than France had expected."  Anne 
Grillo-Nebout, the head of the MFA South Asian Affairs 
Department, said that the French were pleased with how 
President Karzai established his cabinet, characterizing it 
as "well-balanced" and noting that it integrates the 
Pashtuns, which, she said, the French believe is integral to 
stability.  Bertrand Besancenot, Diplomatic Adviser to the 
Minister of Defense, said that Karzai seemed much more 
confident and comfortable at a recent meeting.  The next 
political challenge, Grillo-Nebout said, will be setting up 
the upcoming parliamentary elections that are tentatively 
scheduled for spring.  She explained that the French believe 
the sooner these elections occur the better as the momentum 
of the successful presidential election should give force to 
the parliamentary elections which will be more complicated. 
Grillo-Nebout predicted that the population would participate 
in the elections and that if there were challenges they would 
probably occur just after the vote. 
 
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Funding for Parliamentary Elections and Training 
Parliamentarians 
------------------------------------ 
3.  (C) Grillo-Nebout explained that the French are now in 
the process of examining funding issues for Afghanistan's 
future Parliament.  She said that the French would push the 
European Commission to contribute to the parliamentary 
elections, just as they pushed them to contribute to the 
presidential elections.  She and Laurent Bili spoke of plans 
for a conference that Grillo-Nebout said France would host in 
the second week of March (exact date undetermined) on 
assistance to the Parliament.  The participants will include 
G7 countries, UNAMA, UNDP, and others who hold a stake in 
funding development of the Parliament.  Participants will 
present and discuss building an effective framework to 
deliver aid to the new Parliament. 
 
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NATO 
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4.  (C) Force Generation - Xavier Chatel, the MFA NATO Desk 
Officer, said that force generation is the real issue at the 
core of expanding the ISAF mandate.  Both Camille Grand and 
Bertrand Besancenot said that the French Minister of Defense, 
Michele Alliot-Marie, consistently asserts that nations must 
be realistic about their force generation commitments; the 
aim, they said, is to ensure that member countries do not 
make promises that they cannot keep.  Given that realistic 
approach, Grand and Besancenot admitted, it can sometimes 
appear that the French are less encouraging than they should 
be.  Nevertheless, both MOD officials assured that the French 
are committed to OEF and ISAF and will continue to be 
committed even after EUROCORPS hands over command in February 
(Grand pointed out that France will give six fighter planes 
and crew to ISAF when their command and control elements 
leave the mission). 
 
5.  (C) Chatel asked for clarification on the proposed U.S. 
transfers of two PRTs (Farah and Herat, reftel).  He asked 
what a handover to ISAF would entail, how it would be done, 
if it would mean a diminished U.S. force presence in these 
two posts, and what the U.S. sees as the end-state in western 
expansion.  Ambassador Quinn, OSD and JSC representatives 
underscored that the purpose of a possible integration of 
ISAF and OEF was not to diminish the US presence or 
commitment in Afghanistan.  Laurent Bili said the President's 
office is in the process of asking the MOD if they have a 
"margin of flexibility" that would allow for more troops to 
go to the region.  He said that France does not like the idea 
of using the NATO Response Force (NRF) to fill the vacuum 
left when there are not adequate forces but he noted that the 
NRF must be available to NATO.  He said that the GOF believes 
that it is not a good idea to have too many troops on the 
ground in Afghanistan; one of the reasons there has not been 
high resistance to NATO's presence, he said, is precisely 
because the force numbers are low. 
 
6.  (C) NATO:  ISAF/OEF Integration - Mostly a German 
Concern.  Bili said the Presidency's concern over proposed 
ISAF/OEF integration centered on the fact that the Germans 
are unable to support it.  Besancenot echoed this saying that 
the Germans have a "constitutional problem" with integration 
and that Francez special relationship with Germany demands 
French support.  Grand said that there is some concern at the 
MOD over ISAF/OEF integration in that the MOD believes that 
the Afghans, who see ISAF forces as purely humanitarian and 
OEF forces as having "more teeth," might adopt a more 
negative attitude if the two were to merge.  Quinn countered 
that the reputation of OEF troops among the Afghans is as 
high as that of ISAF troops.   Another concern, Grand said, 
is that the U.S. would decrease its presence in Afghanistan 
with the "merger."   While he said he was convinced that the 
U.S. has "no secret plan to hand Afghanistan over to the 
EU,"issues over "post-fusion" troop strength and command 
structure linger.   Besancenot said that an ISAF/OEF "merger" 
amounts to an extension of the ISAF mandate, and would 
necessitate a discussion with the U.S. over what the U.S. 
contribution to new ISAF capabilities will be.  Grand 
suggested that the best way to go about a "merger" would be 
to do it incrementally rather than making it a political 
event.   "But in the back of our minds," he admitted, "We 
don't want to lose the Germans on this." 
 
7.  (C) NATO: PRTs.  On the subject of PRTs Grand explained 
that in the beginning the MOD was opposed to them; he said 
that the military was reluctant to "act like an NGO" while 
NGOs complained that working side by side with the military 
undermined and endangered them.  However, the French sent 
liaison personnel to work at two PRTs and based on their 
reports have determined that while PRTs are "vastly 
different" from one another, "they do work."  Subsequent 
discussions with UNAMA concluded that PRTs are effective in 
administering humanitarian relief.  Both Grand and Besancenot 
stated that the MOD is not "theologically opposed" to PRTs, 
they are still studying the situation. 
 
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Counter-Narcotics 
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8.  (C) All parties at the MOD, MFA and Elysee agreed that 
the largest challenge facing Afghanistan this year will be 
combating the growing drug trade.  Bili said that ISAF must 
be part of the solution to Afghanistan's narco-traffic 
problem, a sentiment echoed at the MFA and MOD.  When 
Ambassador Quinn suggested to Bili and Besancenot separately 
that ISAF could provide intelligence and logistic support to 
Afghanistan's counter-narcotics effort, both agreed and added 
that special forces could also be used if necessary. 
Besancenot said that Alliot-Marie would answer Secretary of 
Defense Rumsfeld's letter regarding combatting the drug trade 
in Afghanistan in the coming days.  He said that she will 
propose a planning meeting of the U.S., France, Italy, 
Germany and the UK to come up with a counter-narcotics 
framework quickly.  Besancenot said that this should include 
proposed military assistance, World Bank contributions and a 
plan to incorporate bordering countries (he noted that the 
Russians recently pointed out to him that the Iranians have 
made a great effort to combat drug traffic in their country 
and that they should be involved in any regional strategy 
adopted by the coalition).  Grillo-Nebout and Besancenot 
noted that while the old warlords were content to fight the 
system, new drug barons will try to co-opt the government - 
this, they said, is particularly dangerous in light of 
upcoming parliamentary elections. 
 
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Russia 
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9.  (C) Besancenot, who returned from an official visit to 
Russia with Alliot-Marie on January 21, said that authorities 
in Moscow are "more than a little uncomfortable" with the 
situation in Afghanistan.  Firstly, he said, the Russians are 
concerned that since Dostum was "put aside" he could "play a 
nasty role" in the future.  Secondly, they said, the 
liberation of moderate Taliban elements worries the Russians. 
 He added that Moscow is concerned with the drug issue.  The 
Russians' problem, according to Besancenot, stemmed from the 
fact that they had offered a contribution to NATO efforts in 
the past and Washington "said no."  He suggested that the 
U.S. think again about trying to involve Russia to some 
degree in Afghanistan adding that counter-narcotics may be a 
way of re-engaging them.  He said that the French are not 
naive, that they know "Moscow has their friends" in the 
country who they would favor, but that the Russians share a 
common interest and should therefore not be shut out. 
 
10.  Ambassador Quinn cleared this cable. 
Leach