US embassy cable - 05PARIS1528

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 001528 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/08/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, FR, RU 
SUBJECT: MFA SAYS FRANCE-GERMANY-RUSSIA-SPAIN MARCH 18 
MEETING IS "FOLLOW UP" TO SOCHI 
 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL MINISTER-COUNSELOR JOSIAH ROSENBLATT, FOR REAS 
ONS 1.4 B/D 
 
1. (C) During a March 8 meeting with Jean-Francois Terral, 
the MFA's A/S-equivalent for Russia, the former Soviet space 
and the Balkans, POL M/C raised news of a March 18 meeting in 
Paris of the French, German, Russian and Spanish leaders. 
Terral said the meeting should be viewed in the context of 
the September 2004 Chirac-Schroeder-Putin meeting in Sochi, 
where leaders of the three countries decided to continue 
meeting in such a format.  When asked why Spain was then 
included, Terral said he had no idea, and speculated that 
President Chirac and Chancellor Schroeder had decided "it was 
a good idea."  Terral said the March 18 meeting would be very 
informal and that he did not expect the MFA to receive 
substantive readouts. 
 
2. (C) Terral said he understood USG uneasiness regarding the 
meeting given the history leading up to the Iraq conflict, 
but told POL M/C that "the U.S. shouldn't worry."  He said 
his office had been tasked to draw up papers on the Balkans, 
especially Kosovo and EU-Russian relations, and he assumed 
other international issues, such as Afghanistan, Iraq and the 
Middle East peace process, would be discussed.  Terral 
believed that EU-Russian relations would be discussed in the 
context of the upcoming EU-Russia meeting in early May.  It 
was important to have essentially concluded negotiations on 
the "four spaces" of common EU-Russia cooperation before the 
May meeting, Terral said. 
Leach