US embassy cable - 05MANAMA705

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MANAMA 000705 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, ECON, KMPI, ECIN, BA, XF, XG, CA, JA 
SUBJECT: FORUM FOR THE FUTURE MAY 10 STEERING COMMITTEE 
MEETING 
 
REF: MANAMA 675 
 
Sensitive but unclassified; please protect accordingly.  Not 
for Internet distribution. 
 
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Summary 
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1.  (SBU) Bahrain hosted a meeting of the G8/Broader Middle 
East and North Africa (BMENA) Forum for the Future (FfF) 
Steering Committee May 10 that included representatives of 
the U.S., UK, Russia, Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt.  The 
parties discussed preparations for the FfF meeting, to be 
co-chaired by Bahrain and the UK on November 11-12, 2005 in 
Manama, including achieving progress on G8/BMENA initiatives, 
the role of civil society and business at the Forum, new 
initiatives including the Foundation for the Future and Fund 
for the Future, and participants.  The representatives 
requested a role for the BMENA process at the July G8 Summit 
in Gleneagles, Scotland to highlight continued attention on 
reform in the Middle East.  The Arab participants emphasized 
that the governments had an obligation to show their peoples 
concrete results from their enhanced partnership with the G8 
countries.  End Summary. 
 
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Participants 
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2.  (SBU) Bahraini Minister of State for Foreign 
Affairs/Information Minister Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar chaired a 
May 10 meeting of the G8/BMENA Forum for the Future steering 
committee in Manama.  Participants included: 
 
Bahrain:  Abdul Ghaffar; MFA Assistant Under Secretary for 
Coordination and Follow Up Shaikh Abdul Aziz bin Mubarak Al 
Khalifa; MFA Director for Bilateral Affairs Ambassador Dhafer 
Al Umran; Finance Ministry Director for Economic Planning 
Yousuf Humood 
 
U.S.:  NEA PDAS Elizabeth Cheney; Ambassador Monroe; NEA DAS 
Scott Carpenter 
 
UK:  FCO Head of Engaging with the Islamic World Group 
Ambassador Frances Guy; Ambassador to Bahrain Robin Lamb; FCO 
Head of Policy Team Michael Nevin 
 
Jordan:  Finance Minister Bassem Awadallah; Ambassador to 
Bahrain Hussein Al Majali 
 
Egypt:  Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldine; Ambassador to 
Bahrain Azmy Khalifa; MFA National Coordinator for 
Development Initiatives in the Middle East Shabaan Mohammed 
Shabaan 
 
Russia:  MFA Missions Ambassador Sergi Kerpitchinco; 
Ambassador to Bahrain Yuri Antonov 
 
Morocco:  MFA General Director for Bilateral Relations Yousuf 
Al Emrani; Ambassador to Bahrain Al Yazid Al Kadiri. 
 
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FfF to Focus on Reform Achievements 
----------------------------------- 
 
3.  (SBU) Abdul Ghaffar opened the meeting, with media 
representatives present, by explaining Bahrain's vision for 
the November 11-12 FfF meeting, co-chaired by Bahrain and the 
UK.  He said it was an opportunity to review progress, 
assess advancements, and show clear, tangible results 
demonstrating the value of cooperation between BMENA and G8 
countries on reform.  He expressed his appreciation for G8 
investment in BMENA countries, and said the G8 should now 
build upon this foundation with additional assistance -- 
funding, resources, and know-how. 
 
4.  (SBU) Minister Awadallah echoed these ideas, saying that 
"our people" expect results from the region's partnership 
with the G8.  The participants must show real, tangible 
progress that affects regular people's lives.  The FfF should 
be more than just a housekeeping review of programs; there 
should be additional project proposals.  Switching gears, 
Awadallah said that the 2004 G8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia 
showcased a commitment from the top political leadership for 
reform in the region.  He recognized that the UK has a full 
agenda for the Gleneagles Summit, but stressed that the G8 
would not send the right message to the region if Middle East 
reform was not discussed.  Renewing focus on reform would 
provide more meaning for the November FfF meeting. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
Pressing for BMENA Presence at G8 Summit in UK 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
5.  (SBU) NEA PDAS Cheney said there should be a high level 
event at Gleneagles so that the G8 is seen to be directly 
involved in reform in the Middle East.  This would give the 
Bahrain meeting an umbrella of global support and encourage 
other European countries to contribute financially or 
politically to the initiative.  Bahrain, Morocco, and Egypt 
all stated their support for this idea.  The UK's Guy replied 
that she had received the message and would convey it back to 
London.  (Note:  Per reftel, Crown Prince Salman made the 
same request in a joint meeting with all the delegations 
later in the day.  End Note.) 
 
6.  (SBU) Guy reviewed ongoing activities related to BMENA 
initiatives.  She said that the UK held a meeting of finance 
ministers on the margins of the World Bank/IMF meetings in 
Washington in April 2005.  There will be a similar meeting on 
the margins of the Bank/Fund meetings this fall.  The Arab 
Business Council will meet with government representatives 
soon in Jordan.  Jordan will host an education ministerial at 
the Dead Sea after the World Economic Forum meetings in May. 
 
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Democracy and Civil Society Initiatives 
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7.  (SBU) Guy explained action related to democracy and civil 
society.  Yemen, Italy, and Turkey are leading the Democracy 
Assistance Dialogue (DAD) with the participation of other G8 
and BMENA countries.  They have teamed up with NGOs from the 
three countries, most prominently with Italian organization 
"No Peace Without Justice."  The DAD has two major themes: 
women in the political process, and political pluralism.  The 
governments and NGOs plan to hold  meetings on these subjects 
before November so they can provide a report at the FfF. 
 
8.  (SBU) She continued that the civil society dialogue is 
built around four themes:  transparency and  anti-corruption, 
led by the UK; rule of law (U.S.); women and employment 
(Bahrain); and human rights (not yet assigned; UK in touch 
with Qatar about taking it on).  The UK envisions a series of 
civil society meetings and events built around these themes 
taking place in the period leading up to the FfF.  At the 
Forum, a few NGO representatives involved in each theme would 
report progress made in these areas and issue recommendations 
for government action.  She said there is no need for a big 
civil society meeting at the time of the FfF because NGOs 
will have been involved in earlier meetings on the four 
thematic areas. 
 
9.  (SBU) DAS Carpenter added that countries must be 
consistent in how they deal with civil society and make clear 
how they will be involved in the Forum meetings.  It should 
be up to the NGOs themselves to decide who will represent 
them in Bahrain.  Morocco's Al Emrani commented that his 
country did not handle NGO representatives well at the 2004 
Forum in Rabat, and suggested that the organizers include 
NGOs in the planning process so there are no surprises. 
 
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Business To Play a Role 
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10.  (SBU) Abdul Ghaffar noted that, in the context of civil 
society participation at the Forum, it was important that 
business play a role.  At the recent Community of Democracies 
conference in Chile, he had suggested that business groups 
and corporations participate because economic and political 
development and reform go together.  In Bahrain's case, this 
was particularly important because business people needed to 
understand that peaceful demonstrations and rallies were part 
of political openness, and investors should not run away from 
emerging democracies in the developing world that permit 
public expression of political views. 
 
11.  (SBU) The UK's Nevin said that the parties could adopt a 
similar approach for business as that for civil society. 
Business groups could hold meetings on their own and then 
report their findings to the FfF.  Egypt's Mohieldine stated 
that the Arab Business Council had been active on economic 
reform, and the Economic Research Forum had been supportive 
of the Alexandria meetings on reform.  The themes for 
business activities could be investment and corporate 
governance and, he suggested, BMENA activities could be 
coordinated with the OECD, which also focuses on these 
issues.  Al Emrani suggested that BMENA also "build a bridge" 
to the Barcelona process. 
 
12.  (SBU) Mohieldine said that the FfF should adhere 
strictly to the idea of regional projects rather than single 
country projects.  The Forum should ensure that the efforts 
and projects are sustainable, decisions are transparent, and 
all participating countries have access to the initiatives. 
To address sustainability, the parties should consider 
creating a secretariat to promote follow up.  The secretariat 
does not have to be large or expensive, but would fill a need 
in promoting the regional initiatives. 
 
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Foundation and Fund for the Future 
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13.  (SBU) PDAS Cheney stated that the U.S. would like Forum 
participants to announce two deliverables at the November 
meetings.  They are the Foundation for the Future and the 
Fund for the Future.  The Foundation would coordinate 
projects on democracy, political reform, and civil society in 
the region.  As a result of our experience and conversations 
with the UK and EU, she said, our thought is to create an 
entity outside of official government donor channels which is 
multilateral, has a clear mandate, and whose members of the 
board of directors come from BMENA and donor countries. 
Initial funding should be $60 million, of which the U.S. 
would provide $35 million.  The U.S. will distribute a 
proposal on the structure of the Foundation and the board. 
We will work with the World Bank on having a Bank official 
seconded to the Foundation to work on its establishment. 
Cheney stressed that the Foundation should be viewed as a 
response to addressing the needs of the people of the region. 
 
14.  (SBU) The Fund for the Future would be a venture capital 
fund serving as a complement to the Foundation.  Its target 
customers would be entrepreneurs and small business owners. 
The board of the Fund would also be composed of 
representatives from the BMENA and donor countries.  The 
participating countries would need to discuss staffing and 
location of the headquarters of the Fund. 
 
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Coordinate Fund with Ongoing Activities 
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15.  (SBU) Jordan's Awadallah said the creation of the 
Foundation and Fund is extremely important and represented an 
incentive for other donors to come forward.  Noting that U.S. 
initiatives are often misunderstood in the Middle East, he 
said that parties would have to coordinate on a public 
rollout to describe the mandate clearly and emphasize that it 
is responding to needs in the region.  Mohieldine also 
expressed support for the concept of a Fund.  He noted that 
there were already several microfinance programs in the 
region and the FfF countries should ensure that the Fund did 
not duplicate efforts.  He said that microfinance generally 
provided lending to small and micro-enterprises and focused 
on poverty alleviation.  A more appropriate long term focus 
for the Fund would be financing for innovation sectors that 
contribute to the creation of a market-based economy. 
 
16.  (SBU) UK's Guy agreed on the need to coordinate the Fund 
with other activities, and mentioned both the Network of 
Funds and financing available as part of the Barcelona 
process.  PDAS Cheney said that there were differences 
between the Fund and other projects but concurred that it 
needed to be coordinated, particularly with Barcelona.  She 
noted that the announcement of the Foundation and the Fund at 
the November Forum meetings should be done jointly between 
the BMENA and G8 countries so it can be characterized as a 
multilateral (vice U.S.) initiative responding to the 
region's needs.  Bahrain's Abdul Ghaffar stressed that the 
projects should not leak to the press and should only be 
revealed at the Forum meeting. 
 
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Participation and Communique 
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17.  (SBU) Morocco's Al Emrani asked whether more than one 
minister from each country should attend the Forum.  Abdul 
Ghaffar said that Bahrain envisioned a meeting of foreign 
ministers.  Awadallah recommended that each country be given 
the latitude to decide which minister to send as head of 
delegation, depending on the issues to be addressed. 
 
18.  (SBU) Al Emrani said that for the 2004 FfF, the 
co-chairs (U.S. and Morocco) decided which countries to 
invite.  They had agreed it was better to have countries 
inside rather than outside the BMENA initiative, and so had 
invited Iran, Libya, and Syria.  They did not invite Sudan, 
however, because of serious policy concerns related to 
Darfur.  Guy said that Bahrain and the UK would sort out the 
invitation list based on the principle that all should be 
invited except if outstanding political issues prevented it. 
 
19.  (SBU) Mohieldine said that the participants were "lucky" 
in Rabat to have been able to issue a communique at the end 
of the conference.  He suggested that this time the 
participants prepare a draft communique ahead of time so they 
could negotiate and agree on final language before the 
conference. 
 
20.  (U) PDAS Cheney cleared this cable. 
 
MONROE