US embassy cable - 05PRAGUE169

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRAGUE 000169 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2015 
TAGS: MARR, MOPS, PREL, IZ, EZ, NATO 
SUBJECT: CZECH ON FUTURE OF IRAQ COALITION; POSSIBILITY OF 
CONTRIBUTION TO NATO TRAINING MISSION 
 
REF: A. STATE 15400 
 
     B. PRAGUE 111 
 
Classified By: Political-Economic Counselor Michael Dodman for reasons 
1.4 B+D 
 
1. (C) Pol-Econ Counselor and DATT raised ref A points on 
future of Iraq coalition with Czech MFA and MOD Security 
Policy Departments.  The Czechs welcomed the information 
provided about current thinking on the coalition.  They 
noted, of course, that the Czech parliament had just approved 
the extension through the end of 2005 of the Czech military 
police forces training Iraqis near Basra under MNF-I (ref B). 
 They also noted the comments of Czech ForMin Svoboda on Jan 
30 that Czech troops would remain in Iraq after 2005 if the 
Iraqis indicated a need. 
 
2. (C) While the legislation authorizing the extension calls 
for the current Czech MP operation to move from MNF-I to the 
NATO Training Mission-Iraq, it does not contain details about 
when this should or must happen, only that this will take 
place "in accordance with the NATO planning process."  MOD 
staff noted that the vagueness was intentional, in part 
because there is no firm date for NTM-I Phase III to begin, 
but also because they want to keep their options open.  That 
said, they made clear that the Czechs expect that their 
existing MP operation will be rehatted under NTM-I (i.e., 
will remain in their current location).  They reiterated 
their previous assessment, based on discussion during last 
month's voting, that the NATO aspect was critical to the easy 
passage of the extension. 
 
3. (C) In terms of the specific points raised in Ref A, MOD 
and MFA staff both inquired about the plans for the Feb 22-23 
Bucharest coalition conference (note:  we now understand that 
Czech Major General Emil Pupis, who overseas Czech foreign 
deployments, will attend the Bucharest conference).  They 
looked forward to discussions in Bucharest and elsewhere on 
the future of the coalition and the role that Czech troops 
can play. 
 
4. (C) We asked about possible Czech response to the NATO 
SYG's call for NATO members not currently contributing to the 
first stage of the NTM-I to urgently fill a fifty-man gap. 
MFA staff indicated they were investigating whether the 
recently passed resolution provided the GOCR the authority to 
contribute to this mission.  MOD suggested this authority may 
exist, as the resolution authorizes "up to 100 troops" and 
only 97 MPs are currently serving near Basra.  They said the 
GOCR wants to be responsive to the NATO request, there are 
practical problems:  the Czech Army wants to maintain the 
three reserve slots in case emergency circumstances require 
additional deployments to Basra; more important, the Czechs 
are not sure that they have the sort of experts required for 
the training envisioned in the first stage.  But, MOD staff 
made clear that while this is the staff consensus, Defense 
Minister Kuehnl may decide to overrule their recommendation 
and make a firm offer of Czech staff for NTM-I at the Nice 
Ministerial. 
CABANISS