VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUCNDT #1181/01 1602229
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 092229Z JUN 06
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9306

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 001181 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AORC KUNR UNGA
SUBJECT: UN REFORM: U.S. HOSTS LUNCH TO DISCUSS WAYS FORWARD 
 
¶1.  Summary.  In the latest in a series of lunches on reform 
in New York, Ambassadors and representatives from fourteen 
key countries on June 6 acknowledged that time was getting 
short and that it was critical to seek agreement on measures 
to strengthen the UN.  At the lunch, hosted for the first 
time by the United States, many representatives emphasized 
that it was more important to focus on the specific reforms 
that could be agreed to by the end of June rather than to 
dwell on what will happen with the 6-month spending limit 
imposed by the General Assembly last December.  In commenting 
on the U.S. nonpaper (UN Reform: A Path Forward) Pakistan's 
Permanent Representative said the Group of 77 and China could 
agree to a range of management and oversight reform measures 
but would not consent to give the Secretary-General more 
budget authority.  He also foresaw little progress being made 
in the review of UN mandates.  He and others stressed the 
need to have a resolution on the issue of development.  The 
Japanese Deputy Permanent Representative expressed concern 
that some reforms might be held up by late issuance of 
reports on procurement and oversight and he rejected the 
proposal from members of the G-77 and China that the initial 
review of mandates be limited to those--about 7 percent of 
the total--that were more than five years old but that have 
not been renewed.  Participants expressed appreciation to 
host Ambassador Mark Wallace for the U.S.' engagement and 
leadership;  Amb. Wallace, in turn, urged colleagues to bring 
specific reform language and proposals to the next lunch, to 
be hosted by the Representative of the Republic of Korea. 
End summary. 
 
¶2.  The series of lunches at Le Perigord was started several 
months ago by the Deputy Permanent Representative of France 
as a way for him and his fellow Deputies to become more 
familiar with the UN management reform issues.  Wednesday's 
lunch, hosted by Amb. Wallace, was attended mainly by 
Permanent Representatives and Deputy Permanent 
Representatives from Tanzania, Japan, The Netherlands, 
Mexico, France, Canada, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, New 
Zealand, United Kingdom, Singapore, China, and Austria.  Also 
in attendance was Lars Wide, the chef de cabinet to President 
of the General Assembly Jan Eliasson of Sweden. 
 
¶3.  Amb. Wallace said he was pleased with the positive spirit 
that he detected in the U.S.'  recent efforts at outreach to 
the President of the Group of 77 and China (see separate 
reporting cable) and other members.  He distributed copies of 
the UK and U.S. nonpapers on UN reform and asked colleagues 
to comment.  As the lunch proceeded, the following comments 
and responses were made. 
 
¶4.  Ambassador Akram of Pakistan, who seemed to deliver the 
G-77 message in the absence of the South African Permanent 
Representative, recommended that Member States refrain from 
linking proposed reforms to the spending cap even while 
acknowledging that all were aware of the spending cap issue. 
He also said that members of the Group wanted to work on a 
consensus outcome but were concerned that the U.S. would 
inject a surprise in the final stages by including additional 
conditions on agreements.  Regarding the three "buckets" of 
reform outlined in the U.S. nonpaper, Akram said it was clear 
that not all buckets could be filled but that movement could 
be achieved in several areas.  In the first bucket dealing 
with "Modernizing the Secretariat", the element of greatest 
difficulty for G-77 members was increased flexibility for the 
Secretary-General.  While the Group would also have a few 
 
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issues with human resources management proposals once they 
are fully developed, other reforms including 
information/communications technology improvements and better 
financial management practices could be agreed.  In the 
bucket labeled "Improving Oversight, Accountability and 
Governance", Akram said that the Group would only take issue 
with the issue of improved governance.  He saw possibilities 
for agreement on proposals to strengthen OIOS, improve 
accountability, and create an Independent Audit Advisory 
Committee.  The third bucket, entitled "Reviewing Mandates", 
was the most difficult one to achieve agreement on.  It might 
be possible, he said, to agree to reviewing mandates older 
than five years and that have not been renewed; agreement on 
a process for continuing the mandate review into the future 
might also be possible.  To build confidence among 
delegations, Akram suggested that Member States agree on two 
things initially: 1. a resolution on development; and 2. to 
allocate any savings from development mandates back into 
development activities. 
 
Responding to Akram, Amb. Wallace welcomed the opportunity to 
build trust and assured him that the U.S. would not inject 
new ideas into the negotiations.   He said that the U.S. 
understood the importance of lifting the spending cap but 
emphasized that countries would be judged on the reforms that 
are achieved and not on what happens with the spending 
authority.  While acknowledging that U.S. domestic concerns 
were not problems for other Member States, he also stated 
that these concerns could cause problems for the UN. 
 
 
¶5.  France's Deputy Permanent Representative Duclos 
acknowledged the importance of building trust and said that 
the circulation of the U.S. nonpaper was itself a confidence 
building measure because many delegations had wanted to know 
"where the Americans are" on these issues.  He said that all 
were aware of the cap but stressed the need to focus on the 
other issues of management reform.  Regarding the mandate 
review, he said that "we should go as far as possible" but 
acknowledged that this was not an area where much progress 
could be made.  As for the proposal for increased flexibility 
for the Secretary General, Duclos said that it was not so 
much a transfer of power from the Fifth Committee to the 
Secretariat as it was a measure to instill greater efficiency 
 
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in managing the Organization.  The way to bridge this, he 
suggested, was to balance the flexibility with accountability 
requirements.  He said that since in the final negotiation 
states there are usually only a handful of countries in the 
Fifth Committee, perhaps it would help to designate some 
smaller groups upfront to work on possible language.  Duclos 
said that western countries should accept the G-77 proposal 
to concentrate initially on the 7 percent of mandates that 
had not been renewed.  He also signaled that a resolution on 
development was possible. 
 
¶6.  Singapore's Permanent Representative Vanu Menon expressed 
appreciation to the U.S. for its leadership on the issue of 
UN reform.  He said that the elements in the nonpaper seemed 
quite sensible on the surface but remarked that the "devil 
was in the details."  The proposal to grant the 
Secretary-General more authority to transfer resources raised 
 
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special concerns that development activities would be 
short-changed but he suggested that some accountability 
mechanisms could be created to address this.  Menon said that 
things should not be rushed, that it was important to look 
carefully at the reports and see what would be possible by 
the end of June.  Like others, he advocated that the mandate 
review start with the 7 percent of mandates not renewed and 
work on the rest later. 
 
Canadian Ambassador Allan Rock asked whether the G-77 would 
agree to review the other 93 percent of mandates later. 
Menon said he thought it possible to do the first set during 
the 61st GA and to continue in the next session.  He also 
warned against "tying the hands" of the next 
Secretary-General by imposing requirements and changes that 
 
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might not suit him or her. 
 
¶7.  The Deputy Permanent Representative of the United 
Republic of Tanzania, Tuvako Manongi, said that the disparate 
positions of members states could be bridged only through a 
process of reaching out and identifying areas of possible 
agreement.  He said that while he understood that the U.S. 
has pressing domestic issue, other countries do too. 
 
¶8.  Ambassador Rosemary Banks of New Zealand told her 
colleagues that she was relieved now that they were able to 
talk about UN reform more specifically.  She said that she 
looked forward to proposals and positions from both the 
European Union and the G-77.  While the UK and U.S. nonpapers 
seemed to have common elements, in other ways they were not 
matched because the U.S. paper was less specific.  She 
disagreed with those who believed that certain reform 
proposals should wait until the new Secretary-General was 
installed and said that there was a need to find a balance 
between flexibility and accountability. 
 
¶9.  The newly arrived Deputy Permanent Representative from 
the UK, Karen Pierce, explained that her Ambassador's 
nonpaper did not contain hard and fast proposals but was 
merely an enumeration of possible elements.  She also 
recalled the well-known management principle that it was 
important to make difficult changes when there is an outgoing 
leader. 
 
¶10.  The Dutch Deputy Permanent Representative, Arjan 
Hamburger, remarked about the growing distrust between groups 
and countries, saying that it needed to be addressed.  He 
emphasized that reforms were not needed to cut the budget but 
rather to ensure that the budget was used properly. 
Hamburger said that all countries should agree to lift the 
budget cap but also to implement substantial reform.  The 
development resolution, which is a separate issue, should 
also be agreed to soon. 
 
¶11.  Korea's Permanent Representative, Young-jin Choi, 
welcomed the U.S. engagement on management reform, which he 
said was not the case with the human rights council 
discussions.  Like others, Choi said it was more important to 
focus on the specific reform proposals than on the spending 
cap. He said that he was not very optimistic about the 
chances for success and disagreed with others about the issue 
of distrust.  Instead, Choi indicated that the primary issues 
were ones of substance and had to do with increased 
 
flexibility for the Secretary-General, the role of the Fifth 
Committee, and the need for the mandate review.  He said that 
the UN will face a crisis unless solutions are found. 
 
¶12.  Austria's expert representative, Enno Drofenik, said 
that there was little point in focusing on the spending cap 
because it would be lifted one way or the other.  He informed 
the group that EU was working on position papers that should 
be ready next week. Regarding two reform issues: Drofenik 
said that the General Assembly had already given the 
Secretary-General limited budget discretion that now needs to 
 
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be implemented; he also said that the Fifth Committee will 
take up the issue of accountability in a big way this fall 
when it considers the Secretary-General's proposals for 
improving the administration of justice in the Secretariat. 
 
¶13.  Mexico's Deputy Permanent Representative, Juan Manuel 
Robledo, expressed appreciation for the U.S. engagement on 
management reform issues and said that he agreed with Amb. 
Menon of Singapore about the value of the overarching goals 
as well as the need to study the details.  He added his 
support to those who advocated using the 7 percent of 
nonrenewed mandates as the starting point for the review. 
Robledo said that, while he had no recipe for eliminating the 
distrust, Member States would get nowhere without agreements 
on development and ECOSOC reform. 
 
¶14. Japan's Ambassador Ozawa said he was very encouraged by 
the more moderate tone struck by South Africa and Egypt 
earlier in the week during the mandate review meeting.  He 
expressed concern that late submission of reports on 
procurement reform and oversight would adversely affect 
Member States' ability to agree on a comprehensive package. 
On the issue of budgetary flexibility for the 
Secretary-General, Ozawa indicated that the proposed 
 
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discretion of 10 percent was too high and that such a measure 
could start with a rate of 1 or 2 percent as an experiment. 
He disagreed with France and others who advocate the 7 
percent of nonrenewed mandates as a starting point for the 
mandate review, indicating that there was little to be 
achieved in reviewing these mandates.  He also said that it 
was extremely important to show tangible examples of success 
at the end of June and then beyond. 
 
¶15.  Chinese Deputy Permanent Representative Yishan Zhang 
cautioned against adhering to strict time limits for 
achieving reform, saying that the UN's 60 years of practices 
could not be changed in a few months.  He expressed support 
for the use of the 7 percent of nonrenewed mandates to start 
the mandate review and warned that there would not be a 
consensus on the spending cap in June like there was last 
December.  He acknowledged that the largest contributor paid 
22 percent of the budget but stressed that those who pay the 
other 78 percent need to be considered too. 
 
¶16.  Ambassador Lars Wide of the PGA's office provided a 
brief status report on reform items and stressed that 
everything needed to be pulled together in a few weeks.  He 
said President Eliasson stood ready to help. 
 
¶17.  In closing, Amb. Wallace said that there would not be a 
UN crisis due to the spending cap because it would be lifted 
one way or another.  He emphasized the need for a commitment 
to making progress on reform and urged colleagues to come to 
the next lunch, hosted by Korea, with specific proposals. 
 
MILLER