German Federal Foreign Office, Wire Report, 'NPT Review and Extension Conference: Meeting of the Core Group on 10 February 1995'

WIRE REPORT

From: FMZ
To: 25-R Imaschewski

Date: 13.02.95
Time: 9:12

KO: 2 Office Koch
02-00 Meisel
2A-Vz Rose
242-S1 Benke
24-R Polzin
24-Vz Kinder

Subject: Geneva*284: npt review and ext
Priority: 3
Attachments:

reg. no. for edv.: 144 13.02.95, 0912

foreign office
distributor: 16 (242) cti 2 a 24x/25x
ex: 1-5 242
6 d 2 a
7 d 2
8 013
9 014
10 02
11 dg 24
12 2-z 3

fm center will forward to:
bmvg

from: geneva
no. 284 from 10.02.95, 2203 local time
to bonn aa
citissime

telex (secured) to 242
received: 13.02.95, 0905 local time
also for bmvg

bmvg: fue s roem3 5 (only for work level)
az.: pol 371.16 cdfs no. 25/95 101700 passcode
auth: keller/herold/hoffman
subj: npt review and extension conference 1995
here: meeting of the core group on 10.02.1995 in geneva
ref: db no. 242 (cdfs 22) from 08.02.95
continuation of db no. 283 from 10.02.95

--europe--

us asked about the position of the holy see, whereupon agreement was reached that it clearly had expressed support for indefinite, albeit conditional, extension. rus said that recently all cis states are in favor of achieving our goals. however kas and especially ukr connected this issue with maneuvers motivated by domestic politics. influence by other states apart from rus (kas in particular) is to be sought. the view was unanimous that further inducements to solicit scz should be used (we informed those present about the bilateral sts consultations used for this). gb also held that contacting tur could be useful.

--africa--

numerous determinations of the position of african states has established: exchange of opinions on the position of sua, which speaks of the goal of the npt's "perpetuity" and is operating carefully because of the recent oas entry (jan). sua is seen as a key country, which other african states will follow. f mentioned the important role of morocco. f discussed the npt with king. usa and aus were of the impression that kenya and zimbabwe are receptive to our arguments.

--near and middle east--

position of agy - and isr - was discussed at length: us emphasized that both states have been encouraged towards dialogue on nuclear questions. as long as dialogue is being conducted, agy will remain behind other arab states. f added that agy is affected in npt issues not just by the israel problem, but also its claim to leadership among arab states. agy bilaterally declared that it sees a majority for indefinite extension as likely. it has been determined that a number of arab states - e.g. saudi arabia, jordan, algeria - have not yet settled on the future agreed-upon arab position. meetings of the arab league in march will determine the line. with reference to fm moussa's letters to eu states and other issues agreement was reached that we must actively lobby for our goal. d referred to a visit by fm moussa next week. f and jan determined that the gulf states are less close to our position than a year ago - possibly in order to compensate for growing economic relations with isr.

us experienced that the arab league possibly - if no majority forms for one of the proposals at the npt conference - wants to push for adjournment of the conference for one year. one must note the harmful effects of such a development.

--asia--

agreement was reached that asean states do not yet have a position set. south korea and bangladesh are said to be for our position, and cambodia and nepal are inclined toward it. it was unanimous that chn ultimately will vote for indefinite extension, without publicly declaring it beforehand. we informed those present about a consultation trip by dg24 to ini, ino, sri lanka, and probably iran.

4. rules of procedure

on the substance - rule 28 - no advanced discussion took place. determination by gb that experts should work further on this until the start of the conference found agreement. gb shared that its own experts had sketched out nine options for establishing agreement and reminded of the meeting of the western group on 13.04 in new york.

5. next steps

proposal from the ngo parliamentarian for global action - reform of the mechanism of the review conference - was generally viewed skeptically.

during an exchange of option on action strategies us proposed as important elements:

-to prevent as much as possible consensus formation of nam on the extension issue, flexible influence on regional groupings.

-concentration on the most influential states with a twofold goal: to counteract their campaign for support from others and to influence their own votes

-to seek to reach the soonest possible public declaration of states for indefinite extension.

us referred briefly to conversations of the p5 in new york and geneva on positive and negative security guarantees with the goal of a sc resolution. they say they are close to success, must still convince chn, for which the chances are good. gb corrected this optimistic portrayal and pointed out that chn did not want to pass a resolution of this sort during its chairmanship of the sc in march.

the us proposal to seek a written commitment for our goal from treaty parties before the conference was met with overwhelming skepticism, except from rus. the question was deferred.

a survey of the pending multilateral meetings that potentially could be useful for lobbying yielded:

-mid february caricom summit
-opanal 28.2 / chile
-arab league, march
-interparliamentarian union, april
-nam meeting jakarta, april
-pretoria, end of march, kwfz afrika

6. any other business

due to a lack of time media work during the npt conference could not be discussed in detail.

it was unanimous that a further core group meeting under can chairmanship should take place on 20.03 in geneva. the western group will come together on 21.03, also in geneva.

there were considerable concerns (f, gb, rus, and ourselves) about the canadian initiatve "friends of the npt." it was suggested that can bring together the circle it desires at social occasions without forming an formal group.

herold
hoffman