US embassy cable - 05PARIS5490

UNCLAS PARIS 005490 
 
SIPDIS 
 
PLEASE PASS TO RACHEL FEATHERSTONE, PM/PPA. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPKO, MARR, MASS, FR 
SUBJECT: FRENCH: COESPU SUPPORT WILL TAKE TIME 
 
REF: SECSTATE 139663 
 
1.  SUMMARY.  MFA contacts stress that the GoF needs time to 
consider the U.S.-Italian request for support to the Center 
of Excellence for Stability Police Units (COESPU).  Local 
Italian embassy contacts do not expect a French contribution, 
but were encouraged that the GoF did not reject their request 
outright.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  On August 1 poloff spoke with Italian Charge d'Affairs, 
Piergiorgio Cherubini, in an effort to coordinate reftel 
demarche with the Italian Embassy in Paris.  Cherubini 
explained that his embassy had delivered a demarche to the 
MFA Office of Strategic Affairs DAS equivalent Xavier 
Carrel-Billiard on July 22.  Cherubini said that Italian 
expectations were low that the French would act on their 
request to help with the COESPU in Vicenza, Italy; however, 
he said he was encouraged to learn that the French were not 
opposed outright to cooperating.  According to Cherubini, 
Carrel-Billiard said he would pass the matter on to those 
responsible for the gendarmerie for their consideration. 
 
3.  On August 9 and 12 poloff spoke with Elisabeth Claverie 
de Saint-Martin, who works under Carrel-Billiard and is 
responsible for matters concerning the gendarmerie, in the 
MFA's office of Strategic Affairs.  Saint-Martin said that 
the GoF was considering the U.S.-Italian request, but that 
the French needed time to work on the issue.  She said that 
involving the gendarmerie required coordination across a 
spectrum of intergovernmental agencies and offices. 
Furthermore, she added, French participation would involve 
doctrinal changes to the gendarmerie.  Similar changes, she 
noted, would need to be examined in light of establishing a 
common European gendarmerie (also to be headquartered in 
Italy).  Therefore, she explained, to make a hasty change in 
response to an immediate need could be counter-productive to 
their longer-term goals.  She assured poloff that the French 
understood what the U.S. and Italy would like from France as 
regards the COESPU, and that the GoF was busy examining what 
changes were necessary in order to accommodate these needs- a 
time-consuming process. 
 
4.  Poloff gave Saint-Martin a copy of instructions for 
accessing the France Country web page of the G-8 Africa Peace 
Support Operations (PSO) Website which she said she would 
forward to the appropriate GoF personnel. 
Hofmann