US embassy cable - 05PARIS6090

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 006090 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/08/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, PINR, EAIR, EAID, EFIN, FR, UNGA 
SUBJECT: P-3 COMPROMISE ON DEVELOPMENT CAN RESCUE OUTCOME 
DOCUMENT, FRENCH ARGUE 
 
REF: STATE 163224 
 
Classified By: Minister Counselor Josiah B. Rosenblatt, Reasons 1.4b,d 
 
1.  (C) Salvaging the Outcome Document (OD) for the High 
Level Summit hinges on P-3 compromise, in the view of Quai 
d'Orsay action officer Nicolas Kassianides.  At a September 7 
meeting with poloff to discuss reftel demarche, Kassianides 
emphasized that finding mutually acceptable language on 
development and the environment was now the French priority. 
He noted that Ambassador Levitte had provided draft language 
on September 6 to Under Secretary Burns for USG review.  USG 
resistance to compromise on developmental issues, Kassianides 
feared, was generating friction with NAM nations that was 
undermining the OD negotiations.  Kassianides was sanguine 
about other hurdles to the OD, for instance, the 
establishment of the Human Rights Council, which he believed 
was on track.  Once the P-3 reached harmony, the rest would 
fall into place, he believed. 
 
2.  (C) Kassianides argued that the latest French-proposed 
compromise on development accentuates the voluntary nature of 
financing projects such as the airline ticket tax.  On the 
environment, he said France was maintaining its call for a 
revamped UN body on the environment in place of the 
Nairobi-based UNEP, but that France understood this 
initiative would fall short of establishing a new UN agency 
and that there would be strict limitations on size and 
operations. (Kassianides intimated that France would favor a 
different location for the new body and asked why the USG 
should care whether UNEP's successor abandoned Nairobi.) 
 
3.  (C) An admittedly discouraged Kassianides worried that 
the USG might allow the OD to founder and said he 
half-expected USUN to substitute a 2-3 page document at the 
last minute in lieu of the OD. 
 
4.  (C) Comment: Kassianides' fixation on the themes of 
development and the environment as the main stumbling blocks 
to a successful summit outcome reflects the publicly 
announced priorities of the French presidency.  His relative 
confidence about the ease of resolving other challenges -- 
for instance, management reform or establishing the Human 
Rights Council -- was surprising and he admitted he had not 
been following those questions as attentively. Yet his 
perspective may also derive from how the French mission in 
New York is packaging and conveying information on the 
ongoing negotiations, often bypassing senior personnel at the 
Quai -- according to Kassianides -- through private 
communications with presidential diplomatic advisor Maurice 
Gordault-Montagne. 
STAPLETON