US embassy cable - 03HANOI1487

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 001487 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV; S/CT; S; USPACOM FOR J-3; J06 
 
E.O. 12958:  NA 
TAGS: PTER, ASEC, PREL, OTRA, VM, ASEAN, CTERR 
SUBJECT: U.S. CT WORK PLAN FOR ASEAN ACCEPTED IN 
PRINCIPLE 
--          BY THIRD ANNUAL ASEAN SOMTC 
 
 
1.  (SBU)  SUMMARY:  The U.S. and ASEAN member states 
agreed to accept in principle a U.S.-proposed 
counterterrorism Work Plan at the ASEAN-U.S. Senior 
Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOMTC).  While 
final approval of the Work Plan, probably as part of the 
formal Summary Record, will take two weeks, ASEAN intends 
to point to acceptance of the Work Plan as a major 
achievement of the Hanoi SOMTC at the Phnom Penh ASEAN 
Post-Ministerial Conference on June 19, 2003.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (SBU)  State Department Coordinator for 
Counterterrorism Cofer Black led a USG delegation 
comprised of S/CT officers and representatives from EAP 
and USPACOM to Hanoi, Vietnam, for the ASEAN-U.S. portion 
of the Third Annual ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on 
Transnational Crime.  The stated goal of the ASEAN-U.S. 
SOMTC was to operationalize the ASEAN-U.S. Joint 
Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International 
Terrorism signed August 2002 in Brunei. 
 
3.  (SBU)  In response to potential areas of cooperation 
identified in the 2002 ASEAN-U.S. Declaration, the U.S. 
circulated a draft work plan in advance of the SOMTC. 
The five categories outlined in the U.S. Work Plan are: 
Information Sharing; Enhancing Liaison Relationships; 
Capacity Building through Training and Education; 
Transportation, Border, and Immigration Control; and 
Compliance with UN and International Conventions.  Full 
text of draft Work Plan, with text agreed to in 
principle, follows para 6 below. 
 
4.  (SBU)  In discussing the Work Plan, Indonesia raised 
for consideration additional areas in which the U.S. 
might provide assistance, including countering chemical 
and biological terrorism, providing hardware and software 
to combat cyber crime, and delivering technical 
assistance to combat narcotics and arms trafficking.  The 
U.S. delegation concurred on the importance of these 
issues, and agreed to the possibility of examining these 
issues in future SOMTCs. 
 
5.  (SBU)  After several sidebar discussions with the 
ASEAN Secretariat staff and comment from member states 
noted above, both the U.S. and ASEAN member states agreed 
to accept in principle the U.S.-proposed Work Plan.  The 
ASEAN Secretariat must send a draft Summary Record, which 
includes the Work Plan, to ASEAN capitals for detailed 
review and comment.  This process is expected to take 
approximately two weeks, and transmittal to the U.S. of 
the formal Summary Record will take place one week later, 
circa July 4.  Formal processes notwithstanding, both 
sides are expected to refer to the Work Plan as the way 
forward at the Phnom Penh ASEAN Post-Ministerial 
Conference on June 19, 2003. 
 
6.  (SBU)  Note: Brackets below indicate text that is 
pending approval before June 18 ARF meeting. 
 
TEXT ENDORSED IN PRINCIPLE 
WITH AMENDMENTS AT SOMTC+U.S. CONSULTATIONS 
13 June 2003 
ASEAN-U.S. Counterterrorism Work Plan 
U.S.-ASEAN CT Meeting 
Hanoi, June 13, 2003 
--Consistent with the "ASEAN-U.S. Joint Declaration for 
Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism," signed in 
Bandar Seri Bagawan on August 1, 2002, ASEAN and its 
member states and the U.S. have enhanced their 
cooperation to meet the challenge to peace and security 
presented by international terrorism.  Together, ASEAN 
and its member states and the U.S., have taken steps, 
both through multilateral and bilateral channels, to: 
- improve intelligence and terrorist finance information 
sharing; 
- enhance liaison relationships among law enforcement 
agencies; 
- strengthen "capacity building" in order to respond to 
transportation, border and immigration control 
challenges; and 
- stem the flow of terrorist-related material, money and 
people. 
 
Significant progress has also been achieved in legal 
matters through the revision of national laws to meet 
international standards and as additional states comply 
with relevant UN Security Council resolutions. As called 
for in UN Security Council Resolution 1373 and the Joint 
Declaration, member states have become parties to more of 
the twelve international conventions and protocols 
relating to terrorism. We welcome these positive steps to 
combat the terrorist threat within and across national 
boundaries and look forward to additional achievements 
both with ASEAN and with its members. 
 
The participants in the Declaration should continue to 
strengthen and expand their cooperation to combat 
international terrorism in the areas identified in the 
ASEAN-U.S. Declaration. Since the signature of the 
Declaration, the United States has initiated or planned 
programs to address many of the items outlined in the non- 
paper on "Potential Areas for Cooperation among ASEAN and 
the United States." 
 
In addition to the extensive cooperation currently or 
expected to be underway, the United States suggests that the 
participants focus on the following new items under the 
"Areas of Cooperation" identified in the 2002 ASEAN-U.S. 
Declaration. 
 
 I.  Information Sharing. 
 In response to the terrorism section of the May 2002 
ASEAN Trans-National Crime Work Program and to the 
references to "capacity building in national counter- 
terrorism operations and systems" and to "disaster 
management in the event of terrorist attacks" mentioned 
in ""Potential Areas for Cooperation among ASEAN and the 
United States," the United States expects to consider 
means to facilitate efforts to improve communication 
systems among ASEAN member nations and the ASEAN 
Secretariat, in order to enhance crisis management 
 
SIPDIS 
capabilities. 
 
II. Enhance Liaison Relationships. 
 To help realize the 2001 ASEAN Joint Action on Terrorism 
Declaration's call to strengthen ASEAN's institutional 
role in the fight against terrorism and to improve the 
transparency of plans and programs of international and 
regional organizations designed to combat terrorism, the 
United States: 
 - supports strengthened cooperation between ASEAN and the 
United Nations Counterterrorism Committee, the APEC 
Counterterrorism Task Force, the G-8 Counterterrorism 
Action Group established at the Summit in Evian, France, 
the Pacific Islands Forum and other relevant 
organizations. 
 - would be prepared to consider financial assistance for 
the ASEAN Secretariat to enhance these types of 
relationships. 
 
III. Capacity Building through Training and Education 
 
-  The United States would be prepared to consider 
further assistance to member countries to develop the 
legal, financial regulatory, financial intelligence, law 
enforcement, and other capabilities and institutions to 
effectively combat terrorist financing. 
 
- In response to the 2002 ASEAN Trans-national Crime Work 
Program and in conjunction with facilitating enhanced 
communications capabilities as noted in I. Information 
Sharing, the United States would be prepared to consider 
sharing technology and information for the production of 
local, national, and regional consequence management and 
disaster preparedness plans. 
 
IV. Transportation, Border, and Immigration Control 
 
The United States shares the concerns of ASEAN states, as 
expressed in the 2002 ASEAN Trans-national Crime Work 
Program (start bracket) and the Anti-Piracy Statement to 
be adopted at the June 18 ASEAN Regional Forum 
Ministerial (end bracket,) that sea piracy and other 
threats to maritime security are of particular interest 
to the region. Accordingly, the U.S. is prepared to 
facilitate the efforts of ASEAN or individual members to 
enhance maritime security. 
 
In response to references to sea piracy and other 
maritime crime in "Potential Areas for Cooperation in 
Combating International Terrorism among ASEAN and the 
United States," possible assistance to meet this 
challenge might include 
 - a registry of available maritime counter-terrorism 
training 
- additional training through relevant U.S. government 
agencies, particularly to enhance communications 
capabilities, and: 
- in cooperation with other regional states, advice and 
assistance to ASEAN states, as appropriate, to enhance 
their capabilities to combat terrorism and piracy at sea. 
- The U.S. would consider sharing its experience in 
combating maritime narcotics trafficking multilaterally 
in other regions. 
V. Become party to and comply with UN and International 
Conventions 
 
(Start bracket) The ARF Statement on Cooperation Against 
Piracy and Other Threats to Maritime Security, which 
ASEAN Regional Forum participants are expected to approve 
at the upcoming ASEAN Regional Forum Ministerial, calls 
for all states to become party to and comply with the 
Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against 
the Safety of Maritime Navigation 1988 and the Protocol 
for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety 
of Fixed Platforms on the Continental Shelf, 1988 (SUA 
Convention and its Protocol)(end bracket). 
 
The ASEAN Secretariat's information paper on "Potential 
Areas for Cooperation in Combating International 
Terrorism Among ASEAN and the United States" calls for 
the "effective implementation of counter-terrorism 
related conventions." 
 
The United States, in cooperation with other regional 
states, is prepared to assist parties to the SUA 
Convention and its Protocol to implement fully both 
instruments as needed, including but not limited to 
assistance by providing model legislation and law 
enforcement training. 
 
7.  (SBU)  Ambassador Black, as well as EAP/Percival and 
PACOM, have read and cleared this telegram. 
BURGHARDT