VZCZCXRO7852
OO RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHWR #2347 3441426
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 101426Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY WARSAW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5607
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV PRIORITY 1502
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 0265

UNCLAS WARSAW 002347 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV KWBG KPAL IS PL
SUBJECT: POLAND TO ATTEND PARIS DONORS CONFERENCE 
 
REF: STATE 163955 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  PolCouns met December 10 with Wieslaw Kucel, 
Counselor in the MFA's Middle East and Africa Department 
to deliver reftel demarche.  Kucel, who accompanied Foreign 
Minister Radek Sikorski to the Annapolis conference, said 
that Poland would be represented by at least Deputy Foreign 
Minister Ryszard Schnepf, and possibly by Minister 
Sikorski. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Regarding assistance, Kucel said that Poland now 
provides nearly $1 million in development assistance 
to the Palestinians, mostly via NGO's.  The MFA would like to 
do more, and hopes to double that figure in the 
coming year.  Poland's representative to the Paris conference 
should be able, Kucel said, to announce the 
figure at the time of the conference.  Kucel did not think 
Poland had the mechanisms for providing direct 
budgetary support, but he undertook to pass along our message 
urging cash support.  Poland will, he said, 
also support EU efforts and increased contributions to the 
Palestinian budget. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Kucel said that Poland had some long-standing 
training and scholarship programs, under which about 
42 Palestinian students were studying in Poland, most of them 
in medical fields.  This year Poland had 
started a program under which Palestinian and Israeli 
teachers were brought to Poland for training 
in tolerance education, looking at programs Poland has that 
address its own efforts to build better ties 
and build tolerance between Poles and its neighbors, Germany 
and Ukraine, with whom Poland has had such a 
difficult history.  He noted that this program had been run 
out of the presidency, but that, with the change of 
government, might shift to the Ministry of Education.  The 
MFA wants to enlarge this program to include 
assistance in developing a tolerance curriculum, and expand 
it to include media and business. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Kucel undertook to inform us if the Minister should 
make the decision to attend.  PolCouns stressed 
Secretary Rice will head our delegation and that we hope for 
 
SIPDIS 
representation at the most senior level. 
ASHE