VZCZCXRO5368
PP RUEHAST RUEHFL RUEHLA RUEHMRE RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHVEN #0245/01 2881415
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 141415Z OCT 08
FM USMISSION USOSCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5971
INFO RUCNOSC/OSCE COLLECTIVE
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RHMFIUU/HQ USAFE RAMSTEIN AB GE//POLAD/XPXC//
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE//ECJ5-T/ECCS/ECPLAD//
RUEAHQA/HQ USAF WASHINGTON DC//XONP//
RUEASWA/DTRA ALEX WASHINGTON DC//OSAO
RUESDT/DTRA-OSES DARMSTADT GE
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC//J5-DDPMA-E/DDPMA-IN/CAC//

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 USOSCE 000245 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR VCI/CCA, EUR/PRA, EUR/RPM, SCA/CEN 
JCS FOR COL NORWOOD 
OSD FOR ISA (PERENYI) 
NSC FOR HAYES 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PARM PREL OSCE
SUBJECT: OPEN SKIES: 2009 QUOTA DISTRIBUTION/DECONFLICTION 
MEETINGS AND WORKING GROUP 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary.  On October 9-10 USDEL participated in the 
2009 active quota distribution meeting and led the 
deconfliction discussion for observation flights over 
Belarus/Russian Federation and Ukraine.  The U. S. asked for 
and received 14 active quotas over Belarus/Russian Federation 
and 1 active quota over Ukraine.  Following the quota 
distribution, USDEL organized and successfully deconflicted 
the observation flight schedule over Russia and Ukraine for 
all of 2009.  Additionally, USDEL met with various 
delegations and finalized next year's flight sharing 
arrangements. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Earlier in the week, The OSCC Working Group on 
Rules and Procedures met to discuss Slovakia's proposed draft 
decision on alternate airfields.  The U.K. and Sweden 
expressed support for the draft while several States Parties 
expressed concerns with the applicability of the decision 
during an emergency landing and observation flight.  Slovakia 
will addressed inputs from States Parties and will distribute 
a revised draft for discussion at the next working group 
meeting.  Washington please see paragraphs 4, 8, and 9.  End 
summary. 
 
QUOTA DISTRIBUTION MEETING - SPIRIT OF COOPERATION 
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¶3.  (SBU) USDEL (Duong, Wright, Robinette Jordan, White, 
Harmon) participated in the Open Skies Consultative 
Commission (OSCC) "Meeting on Active Quota Distribution 2009 
and Preliminary Deconfliction Discussion" on October 9-10. 
Germany (Ratzlaff) chaired the quota distribution discussions 
that was characterized by a spirit of cooperation by many 
States Parties.  The three "oversubscription" problems 
concerned passive quotas over Bosnia-Herzegovina (2 over), 
Georgia (2 over), and Ukraine (2 over).  Delegations from 
Sweden, Turkey, Latvia, Germany, France and Italy displayed 
the Treaty's spirit of cooperation by their offer and 
willingness to share their observation flights and aircraft 
over the three oversubscribed countries.  Through sharing 
agreements, passive quotas were reduced to within Treaty 
limit. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  The United States requested and received 14 active 
quotas over Belarus/Russian Federation and one quota over 
Ukraine.  The U.S. will share its missions over 
Belarus/Russian Federation with Bulgaria, Czech Republic, 
France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, United Kingdom, Norway, 
Sweden, Turkey, as well as other partners yet to be 
determined partners.  The U.S. will share its single quota 
over Ukraine with Canada.  Russia requested and received 4 
observation flights over the United States.  Additional 
details of the quota distribution can be found in 
OSCC.DEL/17/08.  Belarus will prepare a draft decision on the 
2009 active quota distribution for adoption by the OSCC 
Plenary on October 27.  USDEL have verified that the quota 
allocation is in compliance with the various provisions of 
the Treaty on Open Skies.  Unless otherwise directed, USDEL 
intends to join consensus on this decision. 
 
DENMARK TO FLY OPEN SKIES - TURKISH IR SENSOR WORKSHOP 
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¶5.  (SBU)  An encouraging development for the Treaty on Open 
Skies occurred during the quota meeting.  Denmark, which has 
never conducted an active Opens Skies observation flight 
since ratifying the Treaty, decided to do so in 2009.  Due to 
the lateness of Denmark's decision, the Danish Open Skies 
team was not able to submit the OSF-34 per the timeline 
dictated by OSCC Decision 12/04 (by 1 October).  As a result, 
Denmark was concerned that its one quota request for 
Belarus/Russian Federation would be denied.  Following a 
formal request by the Danish delegation at the quota 
distribution meeting, was supported by Norway, the U.S., and 
Turkey, the German chair agreed to include the Danish bid 
into the quota distribution process. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Additionally, during the meeting, Turkey called 
 
USOSCE 00000245  002 OF 003 
 
 
attention to its upcoming infrared sensor data gathering 
workshop which will be held from 3-14 November.  This was a 
repeat of Turkish OSF-35 transmitted on 26 September 
(OS/TR/08/35/F35/O) that officially announced the event. 
Turkish representatives distributed an information packet 
that contained the workshop schedule as well as tourist 
brochure for Antalya, Turkey.  USDEL (White, Harmon) will 
delivered the packets to U.S. sensor working group team 
members. 
 
FLIGHT DECONFLICTION - FAST AND FURIOUS 
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¶7.  (SBU)  Immediately following the quota distribution 
meeting, USDEL led the discussion to deconflict observation 
flights over Belarus/Russian Federation and Ukraine for 2009. 
 The preliminary schedule submitted by States Parties with 
active quotas over the two countries had 8 scheduling 
conflicts in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.  In a whirlwind and at 
times excited discussion, participants were able to, within 
30 minutes, deconflict the flight schedule for 2009 (in 
contrast to last year's 2 days of meeting) with the exception 
of one (U.S. and Turkey).  It was the now familiar situation 
of Turkey not wanting to flex from its unreasonable desire to 
not fly in the 1st and 3rd quarter due to "bad" weather. 
Fortunately, Turkey and the U.S. were able to come to an 
agreement to share the mission during the week in conflict. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  USDEL requests Washington transmit the OSF-28 
notification for flights over Belarus/Russian Federation for 
the 1st quarter of 2009 as detailed below. 
 
-1st flight: US(lead)-Germany 
-2nd flight: Italy 
-3rd flight: Poland 
-4th flight: US(lead)-Sweden-Norway 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  USDEL requests Washington transmit the OSF-28 
notification for flights over Ukraine for the 1st quarter of 
2009 as detailed below. 
 
-1st flight: Spain(lead)-Czech Republic 
 
SHARING AGREEMENTS - LET'S MAKE A DEAL 
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¶10.  (SBU)  On the margins of the quota discussions, USDEL 
conducted a number of bilateral and multilateral meetings 
with potential observation flight sharing partners.  In 
addition to agreements that had been previously coordinated 
and agreed to, USDEL was able to confirm additional sharing 
agreement with Hungary and Turkey for 2009.  Finland was not 
willing to enter into a sharing arrangement because the 
$15,000 offered by USDEL was not enough.  The Finns wanted a 
50/50 arrangement.  With much regret, the Latvian delegation 
informed USDEL that they are not able to share a flight with 
the U.S. due to a prior agreement with Germany.  Latvia did 
indicate its openness to the idea of sharing an observation 
flight with the U.S. in 2010. 
 
ROMANIAN/US SHARED MISSION - FIRST TIMER 
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¶11.  (SBU)  Following intensive discussion with USDEL 
(Harmon, Duong, Wright, Robinette, Jordan, White) throughout 
the two days, Romania agreed to share their one 2008 
observation mission over Russia with the U.S.  The mission 
will take place in November.  The U.S. support in this 
mission will be essential as this is the first time Romania 
will utilize its newly certified aircraft in a mission over 
Russia.  USDEL (Harmon, Duong) consulted with Russian and 
Belarusian representatives (Kozlov, Pavlov) on allowing the 
U.S. to have an extra quota over Russia for 2008.  Following 
consultation with their capitals, USDEL was informed that 
Belarus/Russian Federation would agreed to the U.S. proposal. 
 USDEL will coordinate the appropriate administrative 
modalities to facilitate the US-Romania sharing agreement. 
 
USOSCE 00000245  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
SLOVAK'S ALTERNATE AIRFIELDS DECISION - NOT A DONE DEAL 
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¶12.  (SBU)  The Open Skies Working Group on Rules and 
Procedures met on October 6 under the Chairmanship of Russia. 
 The focus of the meeting was on Slovakia's draft decision on 
alternate airfields (OSCC.RP/13/08/Rev.1).  Slovak 
representative (Jancovic) introduced the latest version of 
the draft decision which included comments from the U.S. as 
well as other States Parties.  There was general agreement 
with the new text and both the U.K. and Sweden expressed 
their support for the decision. 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  However, several States Parties wanted 
clarification on the applicability of the decision.  Belarus 
(Pavlov) wanted to insert the phrase "group of States 
Parties" into the opening paragraph to make it applicable to 
the Russian Federation and Belarus group of States Parties. 
Turkey (Ercan) questioned how the cost aspect of the decision 
would apply to an emergency landing at an alternate airfield 
not designated under the decision.  Finland (Kangaste) was 
confused by the verbiage in paragraph 6 of the draft. 
Kangaste wanted to know if the observing State Party would be 
allow to continue with the observation flight following a 
landing at an alternate airfield. 
 
¶14.  (SBU)  The chair encouraged delegations with additional 
questions and comments to send their propose changes to him 
and the Slovakian delegation.  Jancovic will distribute a new 
version for discussion at the next working group meeting to 
be held on 27 October. 
SCOTT