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FM USMISSION USOSCE
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RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RHMFIUU/HQ USAFE RAMSTEIN AB GE//POLAD/XPXC//
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RUESDT/DTRA-OSES DARMSTADT GE
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC//J5-DDPMA-E/DDPMA-IN/CAC//

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 USOSCE 000284 
 
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:  A GOOD MONTH FOR NOVEMBER, INCLUDING 
"ALTERNATE AIRFIELDS" 
 
REF: MARVIN-WRIGHT EMAIL NOVEMBER 18 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  The Open Skies Consultative Commission 
(OSCC) plenary on November 24 agreed on a letter from the 
OSCC Chairperson to the Ministerial Council summarizing the 
past year.  The Russian-chaired Working Group on Rules and 
Procedures (IWGRP) agreed on a draft decision on "alternative 
airfields."  This is almost certain to be approved at the 
OSCC plenary on December 15.   Discussion continued on a 
revision of cost distribution procedures in Decision One to 
the Open Skies Treaty.  End Summary. 
 
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Plenary 
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¶2.  (SBU) During the November 24 OSCC plenary (Chaired by 
Belarus-Krayushkin), there was agreement to forward the 
Chair's letter (MC.GAL/6/08/Rev.1) reporting on the OSCC's 
activities in 2008 to the Helsinki ministerial.  (Comment: 
This smooth work contrasts with the Joint Consultative Group 
(JCG) which could not agree on a letter regarding its work on 
the CFE Treaty from its chair to the ministerial, and the 
OSCE's Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC), which is still 
struggling with its annual report with how to characterize 
the August war between Russia and Georgia.  As has been the 
case for several years running, the JCG's annual letter is 
dead for this year; the FSC letter may remain open and go to 
Helsinki with its fate decided there.  End comment.) 
 
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Next Meeting of Working Group on Sensors 
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¶3.  (SBU) The U.S. (Neighbour) announced that the next 
meeting of the Informal Working Group on Sensors (IWGS) will 
take place December 8 ) 12 in Vienna.  He also read a letter 
(OSCC.SEN/9/08)from IWGS Chair Scott Simmons (United States) 
which requested that delegations review Simmons' latest 
proposed Revision One to Decision 14 and prepare comments for 
the December meeting. 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Russia on Recent Observation Missions 
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¶4.  (SBU) Russia (Kozlov) announced that it recently had 
hosted two successful observation missions, one conducted by 
Benelex and the other by the U.S.-Romania in a joint 
observation flight onboard Romania's newly certified AN-30 
aircraft.  Russia also announced that it had completed three 
active missions over Germany, France, and Spain.  Russia also 
had conducted a training flight over Germany.  Kozlov noted 
that all flights had been carried out within the spirit of 
the Open Skies Treaty. 
 
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Agreement in Working Group on "Alternate Airfields" 
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¶5.  (SBU) The Informal Working Group on Rules and Procedures 
(IWGRP), chaired by Russia (Kozlov), met immediately 
following the plenary.  The most recent version of the draft 
decision on alternate airfields (OSCC.RP/13/08/Rev.4) was 
supported by Germany, the U.S., UK, Turkey, Sweden, and 
Finland.  The draft decision will be forwarded to the next 
plenary on December 15 where formal adoption is almost 
certain.  (NOTE:  After the IWGRP, the Slovak delegate 
(Jancovic) who had taken the lead for NATO during the tedious 
negotiations process and worked very effectively with the 
Russians to get them to accept Allies' proposals, thanked 
USDel for its constructive role during the drafting process. 
The Russian Chairman (Kozlov) also expressed appreciation to 
USDel for the constructive U.S. role.  End note.) 
 
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Progress on Cost Distribution ("Rev 5 to Decision 1") 
 
USOSCE 00000284  002 OF 003 
 
 
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¶6.  (SBU) Discussion continued on Revision Five of Decision 
Number One to the Treaty on Open Skies 
(OSCC.RP/17/08,Rev.3/Corr.1).  Germany supported the text. 
USDel (Wright), per ref email, said that it had submitted 
drafting suggestions to the Chair that attempted to keep 
"like" concepts/issues together, e.g., language referring to 
transit flights under certain conditions be dealt with in 
only one portion of the text and not scattered around the 
document, observation flights under certain conditions be 
dealt with in only one portion of the text, and so on. 
Wright recommended that the second full paragraph, dealing 
with transit flights, in section V, paragraph 13, be moved to 
paragraph 11, which also deals with transit flights.  Wright 
also recommended that the last paragraph of section V, 
paragraph 13 be made into a stand-alone paragraph because it 
covered a separate issue.  Slovakia (Jancovic) supported the 
U.S. edits. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Turkey (Ercan) suggested breaking section V, 
paragraph 11 into two paragraphs so that the first half 
dealing with transit flights and the second half dealing with 
observation flights would become two distinct paragraphs. 
The UK (Macleod) stated that the document was still under 
review in capital, but would take note of the changes 
proposed today.  Macleod noted that the UK might have 
additional minor edits.  The Chair requested that Turkey and 
Slovakia submit written recommendations and indicated that 
the proposals may conflict with the proposed submission by 
the U.S. delegation. 
 
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Allies Seem To Be on the Same Page on Costs 
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¶8.  (SBU)  After the IWGRP, the U.S., Turkish, and Slovakian 
delegations discussed their recommendations, which were in 
line with one another.  They agreed that in the spirit of 
keeping "like" with "like," paragraph 11 of section V should 
be broken into two paragraphs, so that the first half of the 
paragraph, dealing with transit flights, would become 
paragraph 11 and the second half of the paragraph dealing 
with observation flights would become paragraph 12.  They 
agreed that the language from paragraph 13 that USDel 
suggested be moved to paragraph 11 should become its own 
paragraph (i.e., paragraph 13) and follow paragraphs 11 and 
¶12. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Lastly, Turkey and Slovakia agreed with the U.S. 
recommendation that the last paragraph of paragraph 13, 
section V become its own paragraph (i.e., paragraph 16). 
Slovakia (Jancovic) and Turkey (Ercan) said they had 
discussed their proposals with the Chair (Kozlov) immediately 
following the IWGRP and would not need to submit anything in 
writing since they were now supporting the U.S. approach. 
The Turkish delegation also expressed that the Russian 
language (now suggested as paragraphs 13 and 16) was still 
vague.  USDel (Wright) agreed to follow up with the Chair to 
indicate that the proposals did not seem to conflict. 
 
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German Draft on Prolonging Work on Sensors 
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¶10.  (SBU)  On the margins of the meetings, USDel (Neighbour) 
shared with Germany (Ratzlaff) U.S. edits to the German draft 
of a decision to prolong the work of the Informal Working 
Group on Sensors (IWGS) into 2009.  USDel (Neighbour and 
Wright) discussed with the UK (Macleod) the need to prod the 
group along in a productive way, so that extending the 
mandate did not become routine practice.  Macleod agreed with 
the need to "give the process a little more urgency," and 
suggested building in a reporting requirement after 6 months 
that might create an incentive for the IWGS to be more 
efficient.  Germany (Ratzlaff) told USDel that he thought 
there was still time to consider the draft decision, which he 
 
USOSCE 00000284  003 OF 003 
 
 
believed did not have to be approved at the December plenary, 
but could wait until January. 
 
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Next Meeting 
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¶11.  (SBU) The next OSCC plenary and the last under Belarus 
chairmanship will take place on December 15.  The next IWGRP 
will meet on December 8 at 10:00 a.m. prior to the first 
session of the IWGS, which will convene at 11:00 a.m. on the 
same day.  Belgium assumes the chairmanship in 2009. 
Although Belgium has yet to propose a schedule of meetings 
for the winter session, the first OSCC for 2009 probably will 
be on/about Monday, January 26. 
FINLEY