US embassy cable - 03OTTAWA1169

C O N F I D E N T I A L OTTAWA 001169 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/25/2013 
TAGS: PREL, KPKO, EU, MK, CA, NATO 
SUBJECT: CANADIAN CONCERNS ABOUT EUROPEAN DEFENSE SUMMIT, 
ESDP "BURDENSHARING" 
 
REF: (A) STATE 103884 (B) USNATO 461 (C) WARSAW 1642 
 
Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Brian Flora, 
Reasons 1.5 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (C) Canada shares our strong concerns about the April 29 
"European Defense Summit" (ref. A), and is pleased that we 
are making U.S. views clear to Europe.  Lisa Helfand, Foreign 
Affairs Deputy Director for Defense and Security Relations, 
said the GoC considers the Summit very unhelpful both for the 
NATO Alliance and for ESDP goals.  She noted that Belgian 
Political Director Carbonez had offered to come to Ottawa to 
brief the GoC on the Summit, but Canada turned off the visit. 
 
2. (C) Helfand also gave us further details on the aborted 
Canadian effort to deploy a staff officer to the EU's 
Operation Concordia in Macedonia (refs. B and C).  Like 
Poland, Canada was completely surprised that they would be 
charged for participation.  Canada had planned to contribute 
one staff officer (lieutenant colonel), but the day before he 
was to deploy the EU presented Canada with a bill for 240,000 
Euros.  The EU informed Canada that since 25% of the 
personnnel for Concordia were from non-EU countries, those 
countries would have to pay 25% of the operating costs. 
Individual country contributions were pro-rated on the basis 
of GDP. 
 
3. (C) Helfand said that Canadian Foreign Minister Graham 
raised this issue with EU Foreign Minister Solana, but that 
the EU was unable/unwilling to backtrack from this policy. 
Helfand said this could have implications in Bosnia if and 
when the EU takes over from SFOR, where Canada currently has 
1270 personnel.  The UK and the Netherlands would like the 
Canadian Forces to stay in Bosnia, she said, but Canada will 
not be interested if it is charged to participate while being 
excluded from mission oversight. 
CELLUCCI