VZCZCXRO7229
OO RUEHDBU RUEHPW RUEHSL
DE RUEHNO #0018/01 0131733
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 131733Z JAN 10
FM USMISSION USNATO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3786
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHDC IMMEDIATE
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN PRIORITY 0791
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL PRIORITY 1333
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0519
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 0010
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0595
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 0825
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RUEHNO/USDELMC BRUSSELS BE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/USNMR SHAPE BE PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 USNATO 000018 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/13/2020 
TAGS: PREL MOPS AF MCAP NATO
SUBJECT: ALLIES WANT STRONG SRSG AND LONDON PUSHES HARD ON 
SECURITY TRANSISTION AT REGIONAL COMMAND - SOUTH MEETING 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Ivo Daalder for reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C/NF) Summary. On January 12, Regional Command - South 
(RC-S) troop contributing nations discussed the key 
deliverables for the January 28 London conference on 
Afghanistan, focusing on civilian coordination and 
transition.  The UK said London would push hard for the 
Council to expeditiously approve and agree to the NATO 
Military Committee's endorsement to start detailed planning 
for ISAF Phase 4 Transition in time for the London 
conference.  RC-S nations also reiterated strong support for 
the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) 
as the lead coordinating authority for international civilian 
assistance.  The RC-South representatives cautioned that, if 
the candidate for the NATO Senior Civilian Representative 
(SCR) was a bigger political heavyweight than the new UN's 
Senior Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG), they 
would insist that the North Atlantic Council (NAC) narrow the 
Terms of Reference (TOR) for the SCR to ensure that it does 
not encroach upon the UN's role in Afghanistan.  Ambassador 
Daalder stressed the need for the NAC to be consulted during 
the NATO Secretary General's (SYG) decision making process 
for choosing the new SCR and determining his TOR, stressing 
that this would be important in getting allied buy-in 
necessary for the SCR to play a larger, coordinating role. 
Daalder added that the U.S. would certainly consider this 
when determining its willingness to be coordinated.  END 
Summary. 
 
 
--------------------------------- 
UK Curiously Pushing Hard on TLSR 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (C/NF) At the January 12 meeting of Regional Command - 
South nations, the UK said London would push hard for the 
Council to expeditiously approve the start of detailed 
planning for ISAF Phase 4 Transition in time for the January 
28 London conference on Afghanistan.  He said "Transition" 
was a key deliverable for London and that the intent was to 
have a discussion on the Transfer of Lead Security and 
Transition with the Afghans on January 28.  London's 
representative said that it supported NATO developing a 
political assessment on the strategy for "Transition", but 
did not want the development of this assessment to hold up 
the Council's endorsement to start "Transition" planning. 
Ambassador Daalder said he would discuss the UK's preference 
to quickly endorse "Transition" planning with Washington, but 
warned that a parallel political assessment process would 
likely have to be approved at the same time as NATO's 
detailed planning for ISAF Phase 4 Transition. 
 
-------------------- 
The Mandate Matters 
-------------------- 
 
¶3. (C/NF) RC-South troop contributors reiterated their strong 
support for the United Nations Assistance Mission in 
Afghanistan (UNAMA) as the lead coordinating authority for 
international civilian assistance.  All agreed on the need 
for ISAF to better coordinate its civilian efforts, but 
expressed a strong preference for the UN SRSG candidate to be 
a stronger political personality than the candidate for an 
enhanced SCR's office.  Nations said they do not want the 
personality of the new SCR to politically overpower the UN 
SRSG position and the UN's traditional roles and 
responsibilities of coordinating Afghanistan's civilian 
assistance.  The RC-South representatives cautioned that, if 
the candidate for the SCR was a larger political heavyweight 
than the new UN SRSG, they would insist that the NAC narrow 
the TOR for the SCR to ensure that it did not encroach upon 
the UN's role. 
 
 
USNATO 00000018  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶4. (C/NF) The Netherlands said that in order to avoid 
"mission creep" clarity to the SCR's mandate would need to be 
firmly established.  Canada suggested that the Alliance use 
the terms of NATO's Afghanistan Cooperation Program to define 
the SCR's role. 
 
¶5. (C/NF) The UK PermRep acknowledged that strengthening the 
role of the SCR would be an on-going process, but pointed out 
that an enhanced SCR should focus on coordinating Provincial 
Reconstruction Team (PRT) efforts not the PRTs themselves, in 
order to preserve national interests.  While acknowledging 
that the NAC does not vote on the SCR candidate, Ambassador 
Daalder said the SYG should invite the NAC to discuss the 
candidate and the job's requirements.  Daalder also said that 
this would be important to get the Allied buy-in necessary to 
allow the SCR to play a larger coordinating role, adding that 
it would be an important part of determining how much the 
U.S. would allow itself to be coordinated by the SCR. 
 
-------------------------- 
Danes Request More Kandaks 
-------------------------- 
 
¶6. (C/NF) The Danish Military Representative said the Danish 
military would like more kandaks (batallions) to partner with 
in Helmand province.  He requested that his government have 
an opportunity to do full partnering with Afghan kandaks in 
the future.  In his view, the level of Afghan National 
Security Forces available for partnering is very low in 
Helmand and there are, currently, no plans to assign 
additional kandaks to the Danish area of responsibility.  The 
U.S. and the UK promised to look into the matter and 
follow-up with the Danish mission. 
 
------------------------- 
London Logistics 
------------------------- 
 
¶7. (C/NF) The UK PermRep said the London conference would be 
an opportunity for NATO to contribute deliverables on 
security and an enhanced ISAF civilian engagement in 
Afghanistan.  He said the conference would be held at the 
Lancaster House and a maximum of four participants from each 
delegation will be invited. 
 
¶8. (C/NF) The full speaking notes of the UK PermRep at the RC 
- South meeting, including points on London's goals for the 
January 28 conference, have been emailed to EUR/RPM and SRAP. 
 
DAALDER