US embassy cable - 05CANBERRA859

C O N F I D E N T I A L CANBERRA 000859 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NP/CBM, EAP/ANP AND NP/RA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/16/2015 
TAGS: PARM, PREL, MNUC, ETTC, AS, MTCRE 
SUBJECT: MTCR: AUSTRALIA WILL SPONSOR SMALL GROUP PROPOSAL 
ON TRANSSHIPMENT BEST PRACTICES 
 
REF: A. STATE 88696 
 
     B. STATE 90000 
     C. CANBERRA 691 
     D. STATE 68722 
     E. CANBERRA 361 
 
Classified By: POLCOUNS WOO LEE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B AND D). 
 
1.  (C) We presented ref A points on May 13 to Department of 
Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Counterproliferation Section 
Director Peter Sawczak and MTCR Action Officer Lucinda Bell, 
asking for Australia's confirmation that it would sponsor the 
fifth Small Group proposal on transshipment best practices 
which had emerged from the April 4 Small Group meeting on the 
margins of the Missile Technology Control Regime's (MTCR) 
Reinforced Points of Contact (RPOC) meeting in Paris (refs C 
and D).  Following up on May 16, Sawczak told us the GOA 
would indeed sponsor Proposal Number 5, and would also 
consult with London about sponsoring Proposal Number 2 on 
scrutinizing exports to North Korea through key transshipment 
points.  He said DFAT would be pleased to see the UK take on 
Proposal Number 2 in order to enable his office to better 
focus on transshipment and brokering best practices, which he 
again noted would harmonize well with similar Australian 
efforts in the Australia Group context.  Sawczak said his 
intent was to update the non-paper on brokering for the MTCR 
Plenary that the GOA had presented at the RPOC meeting. 
 
2.  (C) With regard to Proposal Number 3 on industry 
outreach, while he was glad to see the EU take on the issue, 
Sawczak added that Australia wanted to hold an industry 
outreach seminar for the East Asia Pacific region as well, 
either in late 2005 or in early 2006.  Noting that many ASEAN 
countries were competeing with each other to become key 
transshipment hubs, he thought the GOA would first approach 
Thailand to host it and would use Singapore as a fall-back. 
(NOTE: This MTCR/AG industry outreach effort would be in 
addition to a similar workshop on maritime legal issues that 
AC/AS Peter Shannon had told us about a few weeks earlier, 
which was also intended to be held in Bangkok in late 2005 as 
a subtle PSI and export control outreach effort.  End Note.) 
 
3.  (C) We also presented Ref B to Sawczak and Bell on May 
16.  They were pleased to have the information on private 
entities the U.S. had sanctioned for nuclear and 
missile-related shipments.  Sawczak also mentioned that he 
would be traveling to Paris for the Regime Chairs meeting in 
early June, then would hold Wassenaar-related meetings in 
Vienna, and after that would travel to Kiev for export 
control outreach meetings with Foreign Ministry officials, 
including VFM Dolhov.  Afterwards, he would stop in Budapest 
to support Hungary's Australia Group-related export control 
conference.  In the meantime, Sawczak related, Terry Beven, 
the Australian Deputy Chief of Mission in Vienna, would 
represent the GOA at an MTCR-related Hague Code of Conduct 
(HCOC) meeting in Vienna. 
 
STANTON