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R 130631Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6249
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RHEFHLC/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/HQ USAFE RAMSTEIN AB GE
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUCXONI/ONI WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEHRL/USDAO BERLIN GE
RHMFISS/CDRUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BERLIN 000038 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR S/SRAP, EUR, SCA, INL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/08/2020 
TAGS: MARR PTER PGOV PREL AFDB AF GM
SUBJECT: LONDON CONFERENCE: GERMANY TO FOCUS ON POLICE 
TRAINING 
 
REF: A. BERLIN 22 
     ¶B. 2009 BERLIN 1622 
     ¶C. 2009 BERLIN 837 
 
Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Greg T. Delawie for Reasons 1.4( 
b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Foreign Minister Westerwelle intends to 
emphasize the importance of civilian police training at the 
January 28 London Conference on Afghanistan and announce that 
Germany is willing to increase its contributions in this 
area.  Although the inter-agency has yet to finalize the 
specifics of Germany's increased police training pledge, 
Interior Ministry contacts indicate they are planning a 50 
percent increase in police trainers from the current 167 to 
260 by mid-2010.  Interior Ministry experts believe 
Afghanistan's civilian police force should be increased by 
30,000 to a total of 109,000 and are urging Foreign Office 
colleagues to take this message to London.  Raising the 
profile of civilian police training and other soft power 
tools such as development assistance is in step with 
Westerwelle's preference to steer the London discussions away 
from an exclusive focus on the sensitive issue of Germany's 
combat troop contribution.  Germany's police training mission 
is politically non-controversial and does not require a 
Bundestag mandate.  With this in mind, we should consider 
taking Westerwelle up on his offer to boost police training 
programs while at the same time pressing the Germans for more 
troops - which, among other things, will be needed to provide 
security and force protection for its police training and 
civilian assistance programs.  END SUMMARY 
 
 
¶2. (C) FM Westerwelle plans to stress the importance of 
police training at the January 28 London Conference on 
Afghanistan and prod participants to view the issue as a key 
element of an eventual hand-over of security responsibilities 
to the Afghan government.  Westerwelle's public statements, 
confirmed by discussions with Foreign Office contacts, 
indicate that he believes the current public debate in 
Germany on Afghanistan over-emphasizes the issue of combat 
troop contributions and overlooks Germany's other key 
contributions, namely police training and development 
assistance.  In advance of the London meeting, the German 
inter-agency is developing proposals to increase Germany's 
police training contributions.  Responsibility within the 
German government for police training is divided between the 
Foreign Office, which provides the majority of funding for 
police training efforts, and the Interior Ministry, which 
provides the manpower and substantive training content. 
 
 
¶3. (C) Ministry of Interior contacts told EconOffs that they 
are proposing to the inter-agency that Westerwelle announce 
in London that Germany will increase its bilateral staffing 
contribution to 200 police officers and increase its EUPOL 
contribution to 60, a more than 50 percent increase over the 
current levels.  Germany currently has 167 police officers 
and law enforcement advisors in Afghanistan engaged in police 
training activities: 120 police are assigned to Germany's 
bilateral program and 47, comprised of 30 police and 17 
civilian experts, are assigned to the EUPOL mission.  MoI 
interlocutors indicate that identifying German police 
officers for the Afghanistan mission is not a problem, as 
there are more volunteers than spaces available (Note: 
roughly two-thirds of the volunteers are from the federal 
states and one-third from federal forces. End Note).  MFA 
sources emphasize that police training funding levels for 
2010 are undecided.  In 2009, the MFA allocated 50.2 million 
euros to civilian police training (20 million for 
infrastructure building, 17 million on training, and 13 
million for the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan). 
 
¶4. (C) Interior Ministry experts believe that Afghan police 
forces need to be substantially increased and propose that 
the London Conference agree on a 30,000 increase in the end 
strength of the Afghan National Police (ANP) to a total of 
109,000.  Germany's bilateral program has built/refurbished 
training centers in Kabul, Mazar-e Sharif, Feyzabad and 
 
BERLIN 00000038  002 OF 002 
 
 
Kunduz (opens later this month) that now have a total of 700 
training spots and a yearly through-put capacity of 4,000. 
Germany runs a variety of training programs at these four 
centers for the Afghanistan National Civil Order Police, 
border police, traffic and criminal police.  Interior 
Ministry representatives stress that these facilities are 
available to contribute to new training targets emerging from 
the London meeting.  MFA contacts indicate that the MFA is 
supportive of an increased police training target, but they 
have yet to decide on a specific figure believing that 
questions regarding the future structure of Afghan police 
forces, financing issues, and a strong Afghan political 
commitment need to be clarified first.  The MFA is also 
waiting to consider outcomes from upcoming Joint Coordination 
and Monitoring Board (JCMB) and International Police 
Coordination Board (IPCB) meetings before setting figures. 
Nevertheless, MFA contacts told EconOffs that if the U.S. 
were to propose a specific police training target for London, 
Germany would surely support it. 
 
 
¶5. (C) COMMENT: Westerwelle has long advocated a 
strengthening of international police training efforts in 
Afghanistan.  In fact, this is one of the few consistent 
points he has made related to Afghanistan since last summer's 
election campaign.  The non-military character of Germany's 
civilian police training contributions resonates with 
Westerwelle, and the fact that police training programs do 
not require a Bundestag mandate eases government decision 
making and implementation.  Moreover, unlike the military 
engagement, Germany's police training activities enjoy broad 
support by all political parties and the public at large. 
Westerwelle will bring to London the message that boosting 
police training programs is a key factor to achieving 
self-sustaining security to Afghanistan.  Germany's creation 
of a series of police training centers and other 
developments, such as their plans to manage Focused District 
Development programs in 44 districts by the end of 2012 (ref 
C), further demonstrate its commitment.  We suggest taking 
Westerwelle up on his offer and push him to do even more for 
police training.  With its four training centers and growing 
staff, Germany has the capacity to do so.  Furthermore, the 
issue is politically non-controversial and aligns with the 
government's preference for soft power engagement. 
 
 
¶6. (C) COMMENT CONTINUED: Germany's police training efforts 
in Afghanistan have become, following the 4200-strong 
Bundeswehr deployment, Germany's most important contribution 
to Afghanistan's security.  (The third leg of Germany's 
Afghanistan policy is development assistance.  The 
Development Ministry recently increased aid to Afghanistan by 
50 million euros, bringing Germany's 2009 total to over 260 
million euros, and a Development Ministry contact indicated 
one can "expect a significant increase" in coming weeks.) 
Furthermore, Germany's Bundeswehr and police training 
activities are linked: deploying police training teams to 
remote districts requires military force protection.  The 
Defense Ministry plans to devote an additional 150 soldiers 
to force protection duty to accommodate the planned increases 
in police mentoring teams this year (ref B).  The Foreign 
Office assures us that the foreign minister is aware that his 
proposals for significantly increasing Germany's police 
contributions requires Bundeswehr force protection though 
this is something he has yet to publicly acknowledge. 
MURPHY