VZCZCXYZ0001
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSJ #1933 2422303
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 302303Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5968
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 001933 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA: GSNIDLE, PM/DTC, WHA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PARM KTIA ETRD CS
SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR GUIDANCE ON PROPOSED COSTA RICAN ARMS 
TRADE TREATY 
 
REF: A. 05 STATE 6101 
 
     ¶B. SNIDLE-FRISBIE EMAIL 8-29-2006 
 
¶1.  Post requests Department's guidance in responding to 
Costa Rica's latest proposal for a framework treaty on arms 
trading.  Ref A conveyed Department's opposition to Costa 
Rica's efforts to propose an earlier version of the treaty at 
the OAS more than a year and a half ago.  The original 
proposal was presented by Oscar Arias, along with six other 
Nobel Prize winners, in New York in 1997 and was offered as 
an international code of conduct.  Now the proposal has been 
formatted as an international treaty intended to implement 
additional requirements over time.  The proposal is currently 
supported by 20 Nobel laureates and the British government, 
according to an invitation to the Ambassador from Foreign 
Minister Stagno, dated August 22, 2006 (faxed to WHA/CEN). 
 
¶2.  The Ambassador has been invited to a joint Costa 
Rican-U.K. presentation on the proposed treaty planned for 
September 5, 2006.  Since the Ambassador will out of the 
capital on that date, Post would plan to be represented at 
the presentation by the Political Section.  Post requests 
guidance in time for the September 5 event. 
LANGDALE