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P 010647Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4183
INFO RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 000129 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS 
SINGAPORE FOR DAO 
DEFENSE FOR OSD/POLICY 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/01/2018 
TAGS: PREL MARR BX
SUBJECT: BRUNEI TO ADMIRAL KEATING: WE NEED AMERICANS IN 
REGION 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Emil Skodon, reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. (C) During PACOM Commander Admiral Keating's visit to 
Brunei, we heard one clear and consistent message: in Sultan 
Haji Hassanal Bolkiah's phrasing, "we need the Americans 
around this region."  In a wide-ranging conversation, the 
Sultan welcomed U.S.-Brunei mil-mil activities including the 
annual CARAT exercise, regular ship visits and proposed 
intelligence sharing activities.  Crown Prince al-Muhtadee 
Billah impressed us for having made steps to grow into is 
role as heir to the Sultan.  Chief of Defense Pehin Major 
General Halbi and other military leaders briefed on progress 
in achieving the goals of the Defense White Paper 2007, 
highlighting their interest in acquiring unmanned aerial 
vehicles (UAVs).  Foreign Minister II Pehin Lim Jock Seng 
shared the sense of ASEAN nations that dialogue with China 
was not leading to progress on difficult issues, including 
sharing the resources of the South China Sea.  END SUMMARY. 
 
----------------------- 
SULTAN "WARMLY ENGAGED" 
----------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) PACOM Commander Admiral Timothy Keating visited Brunei 
April 8-9, meeting with Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, Crown 
Prince al Muhtadi Billah, Chief of Defense Pehin Major 
General Halbi and the armed forces service chiefs, and 
Foreign Minister II Pehin Lim Jock Seng.  Admiral Keating 
also visited Royal Brunei Navy Headquarters in Muara, riding 
out by helicopter from the Ministry of Defense for a brief, 
aerial view of Brunei.  The Admiral also granted an exclusive 
interview to the Borneo Bulletin, Brunei's most widely read 
daily newspaper. 
 
¶3. (C) Admiral Keating led off his meeting with the Sultan by 
raising the importance the U.S. attaches to our 
counter-terrorism cooperation, as violent extremism poses a 
threat to both our countries.  Keating emphasized the 
importance of our impending agreement to commence military to 
military intelligence sharing, to which the Sultan responded 
that intel sharing "is very important" to Brunei.  Turning to 
Southeast Asian regional security writ large, the Sultan told 
the admiral that "we need the Americans around this region." 
 
¶4. (C) The Sultan also welcomed the U.S. commitment to 
continue exercises and engagements at a pace comfortable both 
to Brunei and the U.S.  The Sultan acknowledged that 
exercises, such as CARAT, "are very beneficial to us." 
Responding to Admiral Keating's comment on the value to our 
young sailors to see the world, especially a small, modern, 
prosperous, and moderate majority Muslim nation, the Sultan 
noted that visits by U.S. Navy ships are "very good for our 
young people".  The Sultan characterized overall U.S.-Brunei 
military to military activities as "very good." 
 
¶5. (C) Over the course of their discussion, the Sultan asked 
for Admiral Keating's views about China, the Korean 
Peninsula, and the Middle East Peace Process.  The admiral 
responded that China,s military modernization efforts were 
of some concern.  The Chinese say they only want to protect 
what is theirs.  That,s fair, Keating observed, but their 
development of offensive weapons that endanger U.S. ships 
"makes us a bit suspicious of them." 
 
¶6. (C) On Korea, the admiral said he was cautiously 
optimistic about the prospects for DPRK de-nuclearization and 
stability on the peninsula.  The Sultan agreed that things 
seemed to be "moving in the right way." 
 
¶7. (C) On the Middle East Peace Process, the admiral 
commended Brunei for considering participation in UNIFIL in 
Lebanon.  The admiral drew on his experiences while stationed 
in Bahrain to confirm that while our Arab friends are 
critical of U.S. policies in some respects, he believed they 
appreciated the U.S. commitment to peace in the region. 
 
 
BANDAR SER 00000129  002 OF 003 
 
 
¶8. (C)  The atmoshperics during Admiral Keating's discussion 
with the Sultan were excellent.  Following this meeting, 
General Halbi commented that he had never seen the Sultan so 
warmly engaged with a foreign military visitor. 
 
-------------------- 
Crown Prince Engaged 
-------------------- 
 
¶9. (C) Admiral Keating's call on Crown Prince Billah covered 
much of the same ground as his meeting with the Sultan.  The 
Crown Prince queried the Admiral about China's arms 
modernization and possible troubles surrounding the Olympics. 
 Keating emphasized importance of a broad, collective 
international approach to dealing with China and need to 
encourage China to be a "responsible nation."  The Crown 
Prince was supportive of the U.S. intent to remain engaged 
both with ASEAN and bilaterally with countries in the region. 
 While the Crown Prince did more listening than talking, he 
was very attentive and several times asked follow-up 
questions that indicated he was both following and thinking 
about what Admiral Keating had to say.  (Comment:  This is a 
notable evolution from Billah's performance during the 2006 
call by Admiral Keating's predecessor at PACOM, Admiral 
Fallon, when the Crown Prince actively ducked substantive 
topics and limited himself to the comment "We desire good 
relations with all countries.") 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
General Halbi and Military Brief on Strategy 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (C) Over several meetings with the Admiral, General Halbi 
praised the CARAT military exercises' value to the Royal 
Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF).  Halbi's staff briefed on the 
Defense White Paper 2007, focusing on plans to procure UAVs. 
Halbi praised our proposed military intelligence exchange as 
ready to begin pending U.S. action, causing Military 
Intelligence Chief, Col. Ra'emi Malek some discomfort. 
(Note:  Col. Ra'emi has been holding off on beginning this 
exchange until his replacement is named, even though PACOM is 
ready to proceed with military intelligence exchange and 
cooperation.)  Admiral Keating mentioned the potential for 
Non-Commissioned Officer professional development training 
and exchanges if Brunei is interested. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Foreign Ministry: ASEAN-China Dialogue Uneven 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (C) Over lunch at the Ambassador's residence, Foreign 
Minister II Pehin Lim Jock Seng and most of his Ministry's 
Permanent Secretaries briefed on the ASEAN-China dialogue. 
Brunei is currently serving as China Dialogue Partner for 
ASEAN.  Lim assessed that China had been very sophisticated 
in its public relations strategy vis-a-vis ASEAN countries. 
China has pushed a public line of peaceful relations and 
working together towards mutual prosperity.  However, China 
had been crafty at pocketing concessions on opening trade in 
goods with ASEAN while dragging its feet on progress in 
investment and services chapters of a free trade agreement. 
Along similar lines, China had effectively ducked the Myanmar 
(Burma) issue by telling ASEAN, "you take the lead and we'll 
follow." 
 
¶12. (C) Lim said that ASEAN was trying to encourage China to 
be more transparent by pre-announcing its military exercises. 
 This was part of a larger, but unsuccessful strategy to 
build on the ASEAN-China Code of Conduct in the South China 
Sea (SCS).  ASEAN, Lim said, had mooted the idea of joint 
development of SCS resources.  China's response had been, in 
Lim's paraphrase, "why should we, it's ours."  The 
Philippines and Malaysia had been quiet on the issue of 
resource development in the SCS, letting Vietnam take the 
lead, and the heat, with China.  MFAT Permanent Secretary 
Pengiran Dato Osman Patra expanded on the SCS issue, 
observing that China knows its position is weak, but that the 
SCS issue is potentially dangerous for all involved. 
Countries were very active in the South Spratleys and Paracel 
islands.  Notwithstanding this, Osman believed that it was 
 
BANDAR SER 00000129  003 OF 003 
 
 
still possible to do joint projects with China, which Brunei 
was exploring.  Osman noted that the Chinese military seems 
to have a strong voice in China's SCS policy, but that ASEAN 
dialogue with China on this issue had grown more relaxed than 
when it first started. 
 
¶13. (C) Pehin Lim solicited Admiral Keating's views on North 
Korea.  In response to Keating's cautious optimism, Lim said 
that the North Koreans know that the nuclear issue is "the 
only marble they have left, so they spin it as often as they 
can."  Lim and Osman noted the heavy indoctrination of the 
North Korean people was starting to crack through positive 
steps like the visit of the New York Philharmonic and the 
growing employment with South Korean businesses in the 
Kaesong Industrial Area. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶14. (C) Our impressions of the meeting with the Sultan match 
those of General Halbi: Admiral Keating's visit was greeted 
by one of the warmest receptions we've seen or heard of for a 
visiting foreign military leader.  The Bruneians highly 
value, and make good use of the limited face time they get 
with senior U.S. officials.  Crown Prince Billah, often 
discounted by the diplomatic corps (and Bruneians, in 
private) as disinterested in policy issues, impressed us for 
being more engaged and on top of his briefing, indicating 
that he may be growing in his role as first in line to the 
throne.  END COMMENT. 
 
 
Visit Embassy Bandar Seri Begawan's classified web site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eap/bandarseribeg awan/ 
 
SKODON