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DE RUEHRL #0700/01 0691906
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 101906Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2037
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 1284
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 1286
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0325

C O N F I D E N T I A L BERLIN 000700 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SECRETARY RICE AND UNDER SECRETARY FOR 
POLITICAL AFFAIRS R. NICHOLAS BURNS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/09/2016 
TAGS: PREL KUNR UN GM
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR TAHIR-KHELI'S MEETINGS WITH GERMAN 
OFFICIALS 
 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D 
). 
 
 ¶1.  (C) (Summary) Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli visited 
Berlin and discussed UN reform with National Security Advisor 
Christoph Heusgen, Ministry of Foreign Affairs State 
Secretary Georg Boomgaarden, Director General for UN Affairs 
 
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Hans-Joachim Daerr and other Ministry officials on March 6 
and 7.  She also met with members of the Parliamentary 
subcommittee on UN Affairs, held a press roundtable with 
members of the German press and spoke with opinion leaders in 
a number of outreach events.  German interlocutors noted that 
they were dissatisfied with the draft proposal for a new 
Human Rights Council put forward by General Assembly 
President Eliasson, but said they reluctantly supported an EU 
consensus that it is the best that can be achieved now.  They 
also raised the issue of UNSC expansion, and noted that, 
while expansion is not a top German priority, it is an issue 
of interest to Chancellor Merkel.  They strongly supported UN 
management reform initiatives, but cautioned that eliminating 
mandates would be very difficult.  They said the Peace 
Building Commission is particularly important to the Germans, 
and Germany would like to be present "as permanently as 
possible" on this commission. 
 
¶2.  (C) Ambassador Tahir Kheli emphasized that it is 
important to get a significant improvement in the quality of 
the UN's Human Rights organ now that so much effort has gone 
into reforming it.  She said it would be better to address 
the issue of Security Council expansion later this year after 
other UN reforms had been dealt with.  She stressed that the 
U.S. does believe Security Council reform is important, but 
there are still many conflicting proposals for expansion and 
no signs yet that any can obtain broad support. Regarding 
management reform, she stressed that the U.S. focus is not 
simply on eliminating mandates to save money, but on using 
resources more efficiently and redirecting the UN budget to 
higher priority tasks.  (End Summary) 
 
NSA Heusgen 
----------------- 
 
¶3.  (C) National Security Advisor Heusgen expressed interest 
in how the debate on the Human Rights Council could move 
forward.  He agreed that the proposal of General Assembly 
President Eliasson for a new council had been watered down 
and had a number of weak points.  He said trying to improve 
it was reasonable, but asked what should be done if efforts 
to improve the draft failed.  Heusgen said Germany and the EU 
had concluded that the advantages of the current draft 
outweighed its disadvantages. 
 
¶4.  (C) Ambassador Tahir-Kheli stressed that the U.S. has 
been strongly engaged over the past eighteen months on UN 
reform issues and has consistently highlighted U.S. 
priorities.  Regarding the Human Rights Council, the U.S. 
made clear from the beginning that improving the quality of 
membership is critical.  The U.S did not ask for line by line 
negotiations at the last minute, she said, but is simply 
standing by the principle that objective requirements for 
membership, such as the support of two thirds of the General 
Assembly and absence of human rights-related sanctions, are 
necessary.  She stressed that the EU and the U.S. should work 
together closely on this issue.  She said some interlocutors 
had told her that some African countries were prepared to 
support the two thirds requirement for membership but backed 
away after getting a signal from the EU that the majority 
requirement was acceptable. 
 
¶5.  (C)  She noted that UN management reform efforts are 
already underway and that a list of mandates for review might 
be available at the end of the month.  She stressed that the 
U.S. focus is not simply on eliminating mandates to save 
money, but on using resources more efficiently and 
redirecting the UN budget to higher priority tasks. 
Chancellery Global Affairs Director Nikel, who sat in on the 
meeting, agreed that trying to eliminate mandates would be 
very important, but he stressed that the debate would become 
politicized. 
 
¶6.  (C) Nikel also raised the issue of UNSC expansion, and 
asked whether the U.S. had a position on the recent Japanese 
expansion proposal.  Ambassador Tahir-Kheli said that, 
although the U.S. supports a permanent seat for Japan, it has 
not taken a position on the new Japanese proposal.  She noted 
that there are still many conflicting proposals for expansion 
 
and no signs yet that any can obtain broad support.  Nikel 
said that, although UNSC expansion is not the top UN reform 
priority of the Germans, Chancellor Merkel does show interest 
in the topic.  Nikel added that Merkel was involved in the 
decision to reintroduce the G-4 proposal this year. 
 
¶7.  (C) Nikel also asked Ambassador Tahir-Kheli for her views 
on the election of a new Secretary General.  She said the U.S 
is looking for a strong manager and is not tied to supporting 
a candidate from any particular region. 
 
¶8.  (C) National Security Advisor Heusgen noted as an aside 
that the current German government wants the EU to take more 
common positions in the UN to support the long term objective 
of strengthening the EU.  In fact, Heusgen said he would like 
this to be one of the goals for Germany's EU presidency next 
year. 
 
General Director Daerr 
---------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (C) The meeting with General Director Daerr of the 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs focused largely on management 
reform.  He said the Germans had selected Karl-Theodor 
Paschke to be a Special Ambassador for UN Management Reform. 
According to Daerr, Paschke's long experience working on 
management issues in the UN would make him an excellent 
counterpart for U.S. and Japanese advisors working in similar 
functions.  Daerr added that Foreign Minister Steinmeier is 
very familiar with UN reform issues because of his previous 
job in the Chancellery. 
 
¶10.  (C) Daerr said the new Ethics Office and Auditing Board 
have strong support in the General Assembly.  The mandate 
reviews would encounter more difficulties because G-77 
countries would resist eliminating many of the mandates. 
Mandate reviews, he said, will have to be done in phases and 
it may take a long time to get tangible results.  Daerr said 
he recognizes the U.S. government is under congressional 
pressure to get quick results on UN reform.  He said this 
pressure is useful up to a point, but at some point this time 
pressure might stir resentment in some UN members.  Daerr 
said Western countries should stress that when the UN saves 
money by eliminating a mandate the money will be reinvested 
in a higher priority UN program. 
 
¶11.  (C) Ambassador Tahir-Kheli agreed that this would be a 
good approach.  She said that in her consultations with other 
countries she had noted a widespread and deep desire for 
management reform and improved efficiency at the UN.  Many 
interlocutors agreed with her that it did not make sense, for 
example, for an organization as large as the UN Department 
for Peace Keeping Operations, with a budget of more than 4 
billion dollars, to have no outside oversight.  She said that 
the Secretary General had begun making some management 
changes in January.  She noted that reform is likely to lead 
to fewer jobs in New York and more jobs in the field, often 
in countries where living conditions are difficult.  It will 
also require giving more administrative power to the 
Secretary General.  Consequently, reform will require a 
 
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change in the political culture at the UN. 
 
Peace Building Commission 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶12.  (C) Daerr said the Peace Building Commission is 
particularly important to the Germans, in part because of the 
big investments they have made in Afghanistan.  He said 
Germany would like to be present "as permanently as possible" 
on this commission.  Consequently, during times when they are 
not represented as one of the leading financial contributors 
they would like U.S. support in being elected through one of 
the other nominating mechanisms (such as being voted onto the 
commission by the General Assembly).  Daerr said some key 
players should remain on the Peace Building Commission more 
or less permanently, since expertise is critical.  He argued 
that the principle of rotation would be destructive for this 
commission. 
 
¶13.  (C) Daerr said tha once the Peace Building Commission 
is up and runing it should focus quickly on its initial 
tasks  He cautioned that the problems in the Congo or Sdan 
might be too large for the commission to tak on, and 
suggested that Haiti, Burundi or Liberi might be better as 
first tasks. 
 
Security Council Expansion 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶14.  (C) Daerr said that the Germans reintroduced the G-4 
proposal for Security Council expansion this year because 
they believe it is the best proposal that has a reasonable 
chance of getting broad support in the General Assembly.  He 
said the Germans will be interested in U.S. views on Japan's 
recent proposal for Security Council expansion which calls 
for 21 members.  Daerr said the Japanese shaped their 
proposal to meet what they thought might be Washington's 
requirements on such issues as maximum expansion of the 
Council. According to Daerr, the Japanese told him they do 
not expect the U.S. to support this proposal, but they hope 
it will at least not encounter active resistance from 
Washington. 
 
¶15.  (C) Daerr argued that the Japanese proposal would get 
little support in the General Assembly.  He said the proposal 
would have the best chance if it did not specify which of the 
six new seats it calls for is permanent and which is 
non-permanent.  However, he said that if new permanent 
members are selected by secret ballot under such a proposal 
the Japanese would be unlikely to get enough support to 
qualify. 
 
¶16.  (C) Daerr said he does not think that any expansion to 
less than 24 members could obtain broad support in the 
General Assembly.  The G-4, he said, raised the number to 25 
in response to High Level Panel recommendations which were 
generous to Africa.  The G-4 proposal offers Africa two 
permanent seats and 4 non-permanent seats.  Consequently, the 
Germans have been surprised and frustrated with the African 
Union's unwillingness to support the G-4 proposal.  African 
obstructionism plus the opposition of the U.S. and China were 
the chief reasons it was not accepted, Daerr claimed.  He 
added that the Germans remain open to other proposals. 
 
¶17.  (C) Ambassador Tahir-Kheli said it would be best to deal 
with other UN reforms first and then address the question of 
Security Council expansion later this year, perhaps in July. 
She said the U.S. government decision on this issue would be 
made at the highest levels of the government.  She stressed 
that the U.S. does believe that Security Council reform is 
important, and that the U.S. definitely is not in the camp of 
China, which opposes all Security Council expansion. 
 
Human Rights Council 
---------------------------- 
 
¶18.  (C) At lunch, where Daerr was joined by the Office 
Director for UN Human Rights Affairs Peter Rothen, the 
conversation focused on the UN Human Rights Council.  Daerr 
said the Germans' initial approach had been to improve the 
existing Human Rights Commission, but they decided to support 
SYG Annan when he called for an entirely new Human Rights 
Council.  Daerr said he is worried that the new Council will 
be no better than the old Commission.  In some points, such 
as in not restricting the Council to a ten week session, the 
draft proposal presented by General Assembly President 
Eliasson clearly is an improvement over the old Commission, 
Daerr said.  But the Germans were not satisfied with the 
draft overall.  In the end, however, they decided to join the 
EU consensus that it is the best that can be achieved now. 
 
¶19.  (C) Ambassador Tahir Kheli emphasized that it is 
important to get a significant improvement in the quality of 
the UN's human rights organ now that so much trouble and 
effort has gone into reforming it.  She said the U.S. has 
consistently stressed since 2004 that membership 
qualifications for the Council are critical.  The U.S. has 
supported a requirement that prospective members obtain the 
support of two thirds of the General Assembly and that 
objective grounds for disqualification, such as being under 
sanction for human rights abuses, be in place.  These have 
been long-standing positions that have been clearly 
communicated to many interlocutors, she said, and they remain 
the only sticking points for the United States now.  The 
U.S., she emphasized, is not calling for line-by-line 
negotiations of the draft. 
 
¶20.  (C) Daerr said that an additional difficulty with the 
Human Rights Council is that its membership would mirror the 
proportions of the General Assembly.  The old Human Rights 
Commission, he said, despite all of its faults, had a 
membership that represented countries with Western-oriented 
 
human rights practices in greater proportions than the 
General Assembly.  According to his colleague Peter Rothen, 
the old Commission on Human Rights had 27 members who came 
from groups that generally were more supportive of human 
rights (WEOG, GRULAG  and Eastern Europe) and 26 from other 
groups.  The new Council, he said, would have 21 from WEOG, 
GRULAG and Eastern Europe, but would still have 26 from other 
groups.  In any case, Daerr and Rothen said that if 
negotiations continue and it is possible to improve the 
draft, the Germans would like to stay in close touch with the 
U.S. 
 
State Secretary Boomgaarden 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶21.  (C) At the end of her session at the Foreign Ministry, 
Ambassador Tahir-Kheli met with State Secretary Georg 
Boomgaarden.  Boomgaarden emphasized that, although the 
Germans had gone along with the EU consensus, they were not 
satisfied with the draft proposal on the Human Rights Council 
presented by GA president Eliasson.  Boomgaarden said the 
Germans were concerned about who might become a member of 
this Council, and he repeated the point made by Daerr and 
Rothen about the relatively low representation of 
Western-oriented countries.  Boomgaarden stressed the 
problems that regional solidarity had created for the 
Commission on Human Rights.  Because of African solidarity, 
he said, it had bee impossible to pass resolutions critical 
of Zimbbwe. 
 
¶22.  (C) Boomgaarden also briefly discusse the Peace 
Building Commission and solicited Ambssador Tahir-Kheli's 
views on possible first chalenges for this Commission to 
take on.  He and th Ambassador agreed that cases like Haiti, 
Burund or Liberia might be possibilities.  Boomgaardenemphasized that 25 percent of the German Foreign Mnistry 
budget goes to the UN.  Consequently, theGermans are deeply 
interested in using UN resources more efficiently, and are 
pleased that at least the start has been made of creating an 
ethics office.  Ambassador Tahir-Kheli stressed that 
independent oversight is important, as is eliminating 
mandates that are no longer relevant.  Boomgaarden said such 
management reforms are usually easiest to make while 
allocating money to new programs.  Ambassador Tahir-Kheli 
emphasized that the U.S. focus is not on saving money, but on 
redirecting it to UN programs that address current problems. 
 
TIMKEN JR