VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUCNDT #1071 3321258
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 281258Z NOV 07
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3190
INFO RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHVI/AMEMBASSY VIENNA 0493

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 001071 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: UNSC PREL AORC KPAO PTER KNNP
SUBJECT: 1540 COMMITTEE: OUTREACH, BRIEFING FOR REGIONAL 
GROUPS AND THEMATIC DISCUSSION 
 
REF: USUN 1037 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY: On November 21, the Security Council's 1540 
Committee reviewed outreach activities, discussed briefing 
the UN's regional groups on the Committee's letter to states 
transmitting its implementation matrices and seeking 
information on states' implementation of resolution 1540, and 
continued its discussion of devoting a Committee meeting to 
the issue of biosafety and biosecurity.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  The Chairman said he was reaching out to the UN's 
regional groups regarding the timing of a Committee briefing 
to clarify questions on the Committee's letter requesting 
information from States and transmitting the implementation 
matrices (reftel). 
 
¶3.  The members of the Committee's experts' panel also 
briefed members on recent outreach activities.  These events 
included the September 25-27 "common strategy" workshop in 
Dakar to help states with their reporting to the 1540 
Committee, the Counter-Terrorism Committee, and the 1267 
Committee (organized by the three committees' experts' bodies 
and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime); the October 16-17 
seminar in Kyrgyzstan (organized by the Monterey Institute); 
and the October 29-30 meeting with regional organizations in 
Nairobi (organized by CTED).  The panel coordinator praised 
the experts' collaboration with UNODC on the Dakar workshop 
and the November 29-30 workshop in Botswana and recommended 
the Committee invite UNODC to brief it, with a view to 
strengthening cooperation between the two bodies.  USUN 
expressed concern that UNODC seemed to be taking the lead on 
some issues, such as in procuring an expert to assist the 
Caribbean states in reporting to the 1540 Committee, the CTC, 
and the 1267 Committee, on which the Council's expert bodies 
should be leading.  The experts responded that they were 
coordinating effectively with UNODC and thought its work to 
promote states' reporting to the Committee, the CTC, and the 
1267 Committee fell within its mandate.  (Comment:  USUN has 
followed up with the experts to stress that UNODC's mandate 
is limited to providing legislative assistance to enable 
states to become parties to the international conventions and 
protocols relating to terrorism.  Department may want to 
consider additional follow up with UNODC in Vienna since the 
1540 experts advised that their understanding about UNODC's 
mandate came from UNODC.  End Comment.)  USUN also asked 
experts to make their outreach reports to the Committee 
available to workshop participants and States through the 
1540 website and other means, as appropriate. 
 
¶4.  Russia and China then provided preliminary critiques of 
the experts' panel's proposal for the Committee to hold a 
substantive debate on the topics of biosafety and 
biosecurity.  Russia expressed concern that aspects of the 
proposal addressed state proliferation of biological weapons 
and thus fell outside the Committee's mandate.  Any 
discussion of biosafety and biosecurity, Russia said, should 
concern only proliferation by non-state actors.  (Comment: 
Russia's comments reflected its consistent position that 
resolution 1540 addresses only proliferation by non-state 
actors.  End Comment.)  China expressed concern that the 
technical complexity of the topics went beyond the level of 
expertise of China's diplomats in New York.  The Chairman 
said his hope was for a discussion that would help define the 
Committee's role concerning these issues and help clarify how 
the Committee should treat these subjects in its April 2008 
report to the Security Council pursuant to resolution 1673 
(2006).  He did not expect a highly technical discussion.  In 
response to Russia and China, France said it did not agree 
with ruling out certain topics before the Committee's 
thematic discussion had even started. 
 
¶5.  The Chairman asked the panel of experts to summarize the 
current views of members on biosafety and biosecurity and 
prepare a background paper by the end of the month that 
members can use to seek input from capitals.  The Chairman 
tentatively scheduled the Committee's thematic discussion of 
biosafety and biosecurity for December 18. 
 
¶6.  The next 1540 Committee meeting will likely take place 
during the first week of December. 
 
Khalilzad