VZCZCXRO0454
PP RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHNP RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHSL RUEHSR
DE RUEHSM #0502 2240902
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 120902Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4615
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L STOCKHOLM 000502 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/10/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PTER PREL EUN PK EU
SUBJECT: EU FEELING ITS WAY AHEAD WITH PAKISTAN 
 
REF: STOCKHOLM 496 
 
Classified By: CDA Robert Silverman for reasons 1.4 (B) & (D). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary. Nearly two months after the first EU-Pakistan 
summit on June 17, the EU is still working to identify 
counterterrorism and development projects that best suit the 
EU's capabilities and Pakistan's needs. Swedish MFA Pakistan 
Desk Officer Majeed Olerud told Poloffs August 7 that the 
EU's Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, which the Swedes hope 
will be approved by mid-October, would address Pakistan's own 
circumstances separately from their effects on Afghanistan, 
and will focus on trade facilitation and security cooperation. 
 
--Brussels is still determining the roles that support to 
courts, civil society, and the police will play in CT 
cooperation with Pakistan. Islamabad has also been slow to 
suggest areas for cooperation. 
 
--EU trade policy will shift away from tariff liberalization 
toward trade facilitation, for instance helping bring 
Pakistani products up to EU quality standards. 
 
--FM Carl Bildt will attend the 25 August Friends of 
Democratic Pakistan ministerial in Islamabad and hopes for 
high-level U.S. participation. 
 
End Summary. 
 
¶2. (C) Olerud characterized EU-Pakistan relations as being in 
"hibernation" during the nondemocratic reign of President 
Musharraf but said that they were now nearing maturity. The 
June meeting had been an "ad hoc" summit and therefore not 
part of the EU's regular annual rota of high-level meetings. 
One or two additional ad hoc summits will have to be held and 
engagement with Pakistan will have to continue to improve 
before the relationship would be as developed as for example 
the EU-South Korean one. Olerud noted that progress on the 
EU-Pakistan relationship was slowed not by active resistance 
from EU members, but by a lack of knowledge of how best to 
proceed. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt is also pushing 
hard to roll out the EU's new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy 
by mid-September with approval in October (reftel). The 
strategy will try to apply some strategic thinking to 
Pakistan not only as it affects developments in Afghanistan, 
but in identifying "niche" opportunities engaging Pakistan as 
a more developed country with distinct needs. EU members see 
Pakistan as posing a more direct security threat to them than 
Afghanistan, but cooperation can only proceed with the 
engagement and approval of Islamabad. 
 
¶3. (C) He pointed out that Sweden had been a driving force 
behind some of the summit deliverables such as enhanced trade 
access and assistance. Pakistan's standing in the EU's 
General System of Preferences (GSP) for trade would be 
reviewed, along with that of several other countries. 
Although Olerud doubted that Islamabad would qualify for 
GSP-plus status because the EU was not a critical export 
market, he noted that a large portion of Pakistani exports to 
the EU--such as bedlinens--were already tariff-free. Trade 
assistance would instead focus on facilitating trade in new 
areas--such as aquaculture--by helping Pakistan bring the 
phytosanitary conditions in its fishery sector to European 
standards. Details of the assistance program and next steps 
toward a free trade association would be set out in the fall. 
Any enhanced trade regime, however, would have to be 
accompanied by Pakistani ratification of human rights 
agreements. 
 
¶4. (C) The EU's fledgling counterterrorism cooperation with 
Islamabad represents a "shifting of gears" in EU CT policy. 
Because it is still in the works, Olerud could not give 
details on how much emphasis the final strategy would place 
on support to courts, civil society and the lawyers' 
movement, and police training, or what form this would take. 
He said that Islamabad had been slow to identify areas where 
it needed or would accept cooperation. 
 
¶5. (C)Olerud said FM Bildt will represent the EU Presidency 
at the August 25 Friends of Democratic Pakistan ministerial 
in Istanbul, and hoped that the U.S. would send a high level 
official, suggesting that this may prompt Pakistan to have 
concrete proposals ready for the meeting. 
SILVERMAN