VZCZCXRO4378
PP RUEHPT
DE RUEHBY #1269/01 3470527
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 120527Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY CANBERRA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0677
INFO RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 3326
RUEHBN/AMCONSUL MELBOURNE PRIORITY 5837
RUEHPT/AMCONSUL PERTH PRIORITY 4107
RUEHDN/AMCONSUL SYDNEY PRIORITY 4045
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CANBERRA 001269 
 
SIPDIS 
 
PACOM FOR CENTER OF EXCELLENCE, DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/ANP AND 
EAP/RSP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL EAID MARR MOPS ASEAN ARF JA AS
SUBJECT: THE TSD HA/DR OFFICIAL MEETING IN CANBERRA 
 
 ¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  The Japanese delegation, the American 
delegation and Australian hosts agreed upon a set of 
Australian written guidelines for the Trilateral Security 
Dialog's work in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster 
Response (HA/DR), but the task of the coming year will be the 
editing and acceptance of the supplement to that draft 
containing more specific follow-through actions pursuant to 
the guidelines. All participants agreed that efforts at the 
trilateral level should be complementary with the efforts of 
the individual nations and be coordinated with other 
international, regional, and NGO actors in HA/DR. The 
Australians will chair the next year's efforts. End SUMMARY 
 
2 (SBU) The one day December 2, 2008 meeting, the first 
Trilateral Security Dialog (TSD) meeting on Humanitarian 
Assistance/Disaster Response (HA/DR) cooperation, was 
augmented by a roundtable held at the newly formed Asia 
Pacific Civil-Military Centre for Excellence in Queanbeyan on 
December 3, 2008. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Participants: 
 
Australian Delegation 
 
--Jennifer Rawson: First Assistant Secretary, International 
Security Division (Head of Delegation) 
--John Quinn: Assistant Secretary, Strategic Issues and 
Intelligence Branch (Co-chair of Delegation) 
--Cameron Archer: Director, Defence and Strategic Policy, 
International Security Division Department of Foreign Affairs 
and Trade 
--Alistair Sherwin, Assistant Secretary, Humanitarian and 
Middle East Branch, AusAID 
--Shireen Sandhu, AusAID 
--Gary Dunbar, AusAID 
--Karl Kent, Assistant Secretary, Capability and 
Coordination, Emergency Management Australia (EMA) 
--Rajan Venkataraman, Senior Advisor, Office of National 
Security, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) 
--Robert McGregor and WGCDR Antony Martin from International 
Policy Division and Headquarters Joint Operations Command, 
Department of Defence 
-- Michael G. Smith: Guest speaker, Executive Director Asia 
Pacific Civil-Military Centre for Excellence 
 
Japanese Delegation 
 
--Kiminori Iwama:  Director, Oceania Division, Asian and 
Oceania Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
(Head of Delegation) 
--Takashi Koizumi: Director, Overseas Disaster Assistance 
Division, International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs 
--Toshihide Ando: Counselor, Embassy of Japan in Canberra 
--Nobuharu Imanishi: First Secretary, Embassy of Japan Also 
at Centre meeting 
--Naoki Semmyo: Second Secretary, Embassy of Japan 
 
U.S.Delegation 
 
--James Fleming: Director of Operations and Logistics, 
USAID/OFDA (Head of Delegation) 
--Bill Berger: USAID/OFDA's Acting Principal Regional Advisor 
in Bangkok 
--Alcy Frelick: Director of the Office of Australia, New 
Zealand, and Pacific Affairs 
--Joseph Bosco: OSD Policy's Advisor on HA/DR 
--Jeff Hensel: USAID/OFDA representative at PACOM 
--Scott Weidie: PACOM 
--Tom Dolan: HA/DR Advisor, Center for Excellence in Disaster 
management and Humanitarian Assistance, PACOM 
--Kevin Sheives, EAP's Office of Regional Security Policy 
--David Atkinson, Embassy Canberra Disaster Relief Official 
--Virgil Strohmeyer, Embassy Canberra Political Officer 
 
¶4. (SBU) Kiminori Iwama identified the key issues that Japan 
considered to be especially novel and important. 
--The whole-of-government approach is new to the Japanese, 
Q--The whole-of-government approach is new to the Japanese, 
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) itself has 
many competing sections dealing with HA/DR.  There must be 
internal discussions concerning the best way forward 
toward the coordination of individual agency and 
institutional efforts. 
--Japanese specific legal constraints hamper the 
 
CANBERRA 00001269  002 OF 003 
 
 
implementation of the approach, especially in the case of the 
military. 
--Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is already a prime focus of 
the Japanese Center in Kobe and is of special interest to 
Japanese actors. 
--There must be a clearing house for information that 
summarizes and synergizes the lessons learned from past and 
future disaster events. 
 
¶5. (SBU) USAID/OFDA's James Fleming emphasized that there was 
overwhelming agreement among the three countries 
because of a common spirit of cooperation based on shared 
values. This commonality allowed an appealing informality 
of discussion. The TSD meeting outcomes included willingness 
for increased cooperation, a greater understanding of 
national goals, and a general comfort with the agreed 
guidelines. 
 
¶6. (SBU) DFAT's John Quinn concluded for the Australians 
emphasizing the importance of basic like-mindedness, which 
allowed much learning from the diversity of national 
approaches. He felt that there was a real value to the 
agreement to join the dots of what exists rather than to 
invent another layer of bureaucracy to the many that already 
overlay the workers in the field. Although differences and 
limitations of individual nations must be respected, 
streamlining documentation and creating a checklist would add 
to the prudence of policy makers, who would benefit from the 
production of a working manual open to editing by all the 
participants. He also wanted to connect with UN 
organizations and NGOs more effectively, with the TSD 
partners raising a common profile in political venues. 
Lastly, all the national centers of excellence should become 
interlocutors, especially on the issues of developing DRR 
principles and techniques. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Jennifer Rawson provided the Australian summary of 
the entire meeting and their intended working points for 
the coming year: 
-- There was general agreement on the proposed guidelines 
that described the working principles for the group-- 
especially the importance of hazard reduction. 
-- All participants should consider the draft supplement to 
the guidelines, which attempted to elaborate their 
practical implications, as a checklist and a work-in-progress 
that is not meant to be legally binding. 
It should come to include the particular issues that are 
available for cooperation given legal and national 
restrictions. 
-- This first meeting has commenced the work of creating a 
program for the future based upon lessons learned from the 
three recent disasters in the region: Tsunami, Sichuan 
earthquake and Burmese cyclone, and of emphasizing how a 
TSDapproach might have produced more favorable outcomes. This 
would be the first step in creating a handbook/manual 
from a survey of national decisions made during these efforts. 
-- All participants must explore how they can work more 
effectively together with other organizations-especially 
UNOCHA, ARF, and APEC. 
-- The TSD should caucus together in different regional 
organizations presenting a common front of concerted action. 
-- The Australian group chairing the work during this year 
will focus their inter-sessional activities on gathering a 
contact list and working with the participants' embassies to 
produce an acceptable draft supplement. 
 
¶8. (SBU) A further smaller roundtable held Dec 3 at the new 
Queanbeyan Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre for Excellence 
QQueanbeyan Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre for Excellence 
put forward more targeted proposals that aim to increase 
coordination during training and preparation for HA/DR 
operations, and resulted in a fruitful discussion on how to 
better integrate various approaches defined by the three 
Centers of Excellence now operating in the Hawaii, Kobe, and 
Queanbeyan. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Roundtable participants: 
 
Australian: 
 
From Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence: 
--Alison Chartres: Chief of Staff 
--Colonel Neil Greet: Military Affairs Advisor 
--Dr. Moreen Dee: Executive Officer 
--Randy Knispel: Training and Website Development and Support 
 
CANBERRA 00001269  003 OF 003 
 
 
--Greg Takats: AusAID secondee (Research and Lessons Learned) 
--Superintendent Nigel Phair: Australian Federal Police 
secondee (Education, training and doctrine Development) 
 
--Cameron Archer from DFAT 
--Nicholas Charpentier from DFAT 
--Sue Edgecombe: AusAID Liaison Officer to the ADF 
--Thanh Le: AusAID Manager-Emergency Services 
--Nick Keam: Australian Federal Police, Peace Operations and 
Doctrine, International Deployment Group 
 
US: 
 
--Tom Dolan 
--Scott Weidie 
--David Atkinson 
--Virgil Strohmeyer 
 
Japan: 
 
--Nobuharu Imanishi: First Secretary, Embassy of Japan 
 
¶10. (SBU) The December 3 roundtable identified a number of 
action possibilities, including: 
--PACOM's Scott Weidie suggested that national centers of 
excellence organize a workshop in advance of the Tempest 
Express Exercise with PACOM.  This would be best done two 
years in future with the exercise centered in Japan 
(provisional) 
--All agreed that the whole-of-government approach has to 
take in the professions--legal, medical, security, 
engineering and teaching--besides government bureaucracies. 
Civil and military government must manage enthusiasm. 
--The TSD's roles must be complementary-combining effectively 
the efforts of international actors and the NGOs and 
governments of all three nations. The military role is at the 
peak of disaster--police replacing them during clean up and 
reconstruction. Teachers, engineers and medical personnel 
have a place in the risk reduction phase as well as in the 
post disaster phase-for disasters are reduced using lessons 
learned and then applied to the preparatory phase of future 
events. 
--Many agreed that next rotation of the TSD working group 
after Australia should be to Japan, where whole-of-government 
issues and defense force participation could be tackled. The 
American rotation could be one of implementation of the 
agreed upon framework. 
--Informal reviews after each disaster effort should be 
shared among the centers. 
--The centers could develop an outline of civil/military 
triggers. 
--The centers should also analyze present stockpiles for 
their best use and coordination among the three nations using 
various scenarios, informed by past events and the 
prognostications of the best science. 
 
¶11. (SBU) COMMENT: All parties agreed both meetings were very 
useful and identified concrete actions to follow up. 
How the Australian Center will be stitched together and 
operate with a number of differing agencies, all with 
differing roles in the broad spectrum of HA/DR operations, 
remains to be seen. 
 
MCCALLUM