US embassy cable - 05PARIS7961

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 007961 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR ISN/MTR 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10 YEARS 
TAGS: ETTC, FR, KS, KSCA, MNUC, PARM, PREL, TSPA, MTCRE 
SUBJECT: MISSILE TECHNOLOGY CONTROL REGIME:  20 OCTOBER 
MEETING OF MTCR POINTS OF CONTACT IN PARIS 
 
REF: STATE 192533 
 
Classified By: EST Counselor Robert W. Dry for Reasons 1.5 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C)  Summary:  On 20 October 2005, ESTH/NP officer 
attended a meeting of the Missile Technology Control Regime 
(MTCR) Points of Contacts (POCS) at the Spanish Embassy in 
Paris.  This meeting focused on reviewing results of the 
September MTCR Plenary in Madrid and on briefing partners on 
the agenda for the coming months, to include MTCR outreach 
activities, status of intersessional TEM, progress on the 
EPOC system, and planning for the April 2006 RPOC in Paris. 
Next POC meeting was tentatively planned for early December. 
 
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MTCR OUTREACH PLANS 
------------------- 
 
2.  (C)  New Spanish MTCR Chair Manual Viturro informed 
partners that he had received a Canadian request to 
participate in a November MTCR seminar in Singapore with host 
country officials.  On the margins of the seminar, Chair 
hoped to engage in consultations with Malaysian authorities. 
Chair further advised that in 2006 he planned to visit India, 
Pakistan, China, and Israel, and has already been in contact 
with the relevant authorities in these countries.  Initial 
feedback from Chinese, Pakistani, and Indian officials has 
been that no local (in-country embassy staff) will be allowed 
to participate in the consultations.  Chair noted that Asia 
will remain a MTCR outreach priority during his tenure.   In 
response to a question from the Argentinean representative, 
Chair commented that he had no plans to focus on Chile (in 
terms of informal cooperation) or Venezuela (as a country of 
potential concern), but would be open to engaging and/or 
focusing attention on these countries if partners made 
specific requests.  On the margins of the POC meeting, the 
Argentinean representative told ESTH/NP officer that his 
government was interested in the MTCR Chair fixing attention 
on Venezuela, as Argentina had concerns about possible 
Venezuelan plans to enhance its missile program and was 
watching Venezuela's emerging cooperation with North Korea 
with keen interest. 
 
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STATUS ON PLANNING FOR AN INTERSESSIONAL 
TECHNICAL EXPERTS MEETING (TEM) 
---------------------------------------- 
 
3.  (C)  French POC informed partners that nothing had been 
confirmed in terms of an intersessional Technical Experts 
Meeting (TEM) prior to the April RPOC, and that the POC was 
still awaiting confirmation from the Germans regarding their 
willingness to host such a meeting prior to the RPOC in 
April. (In a side discussion after the meeting, Bertolotti 
told ESTH/NP officer that he would keep the Embassy apprised 
of any developments regarding this issue). 
 
 
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PLANNING FOR THE RPOC IN APRIL 2006 
----------------------------------- 
 
4.   (C)  In regard to the April 2006 RPOC, Bertolotti called 
on partners to agree on an agenda and submit discussion 
papers for distribution to partners well in advance of the 
April RPOC in order to ensure as productive a meeting as 
possible.  Above comments from French POC regarding the RPOC 
obviated the need for EST officer to make similar remarks. 
EST officer merely endorsed Bertolotti's comments. 
 
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UPDATE ON ELECTRONIC POINT OF CONTACT (EPOC) 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
5.   (C)  As a final item, French POC commented that the 
system could accept another 6-8 partners as part of the 
current test phase, and invited interested partners to notify 
him as soon as possible if they want to be added to the 
system.  He noted positive responses from the partners 
already using the system. 
Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm 
 
Stapleton