US embassy cable - 05OTTAWA1975

C O N F I D E N T I A L OTTAWA 001975 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/29/2015 
TAGS: MNUC, PARM, PGOV, PHSA, PREL, KNNP, CA, Arms Control 
SUBJECT: LETTER ON PSI CORE GROUP DELIVERED TO CANADA 
 
REF: A. (A) LAKER-MCNERNEY TELCON 6/28/05 
 
     B. (B)SECSTATE 118539 
 
Classified By: Pol/Mil Officer Patricia Kim-Scott.  Reason E.O. 12958, 
1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (C) Undersecretary Joseph's letter was delivered on June 
27 to Assistant Deputy Minister for International Security 
Jim Wright, with a copy to Rob McDougall, Director of 
Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament Division 
(IDA) at Foreign Affairs Canada.  In a follow-up conversation 
on June 29, IDA Deputy Marina Laker informed polmiloff that 
the GOC was still deliberating its position regarding 
proposed dissolution of the Core Group; she anticipated that 
Wright would make a decision later in the day on whether 
Canada will "maintain silence." (Laker noted irony in the 
fact that UK technically had "broken silence" with its e-mail 
endorsement of the U.S. proposal.) 
 
2. (C) Alluding to her conversation with T staff regarding 
the reason for the June 30 deadline (ref A), Laker said she 
wasn't so sure that dissolving the Core group would "help" in 
getting others to join PSI.  Moreover, she argued, the Core 
group had done some heavy lifting in its day and there might 
well be some political issues down the road that would 
require such a forum.  She acknowledged, however, that ad hoc 
groups could work. 
 
3. (C) Laker also disagreed with the view that PSI had 
matured to a point where the Operational Experts Groups 
(OEGs) could function without a specific policy umbrella. 
For one thing, she said, DND (Department of National Defence) 
officials who represented Canada at the OEGs did not have 
(and did not want) a mandate to carry out "political 
discussions".  As a regular participant in the OEGs, Laker 
asserted that she had observed both a noticeable slow-down in 
activity and a growing undercurrent of political debate at 
recent meetings.  She favored moving to "regional OEGs" as a 
way to avert "OEG fatigue," thus enabling governments to be 
more active in those OEG meetings in which they had a direct 
stake.  Laker said she was not sure, however, that 
dissolution of the Core group would advance the concept of 
regional OEGs. 
 
4. (C) Finally, alluding to USG's public diplomacy effort on 
the anniversary of the PSI, Laker registered Canadians' 
surprise" that a dozen successful interdictions had occurred 
under PSI.  It would be helpful to have more information 
about the interdictions, she said.  Though she recognized 
that the Core group wasn't designed to address 
information-sharing per se, Laker thought it might be useful 
in identifying these sorts of "gaps" in the PSI. 
 
Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa 
 
WILKINS