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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 USNATO 000580 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/04/2019 
TAGS: OVIP STEINBERG JAMES PREL NATO PGOV MOPS
SUBJECT: (U) DEPUTY SECRETARY STEINBERG'S DECEMBER 3, 2009, 
PARTICIPATION IN THE FOREIGN MINISTERIAL WORKING DINNER OF 
THE NORTH ATLANTIC COUNCIL 
 
¶1.  (U)  Classified by:  Amy Scanlon, D(S) Special Assistant, 
Department of State. Reason 1.4.(d) 
 
¶2.  (U) December 3, 2009; 8:00 p.m.; Brussels, Belgium. 
 
¶3.  (U) Participants: 
 
U.S. 
Deputy Secretary James Steinberg 
Ambassador Ivo Daalder 
A/S Phil Gordon, EUR 
Amy Scanlon, D(S) Special Assistant 
USNATO Political Officer Jeff Workman, Notetaker 
 
NATO 
Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen 
Supreme Allied Commander, Admiral James Stavridis 
Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, Chairman of the NATO Military 
Committee 
 
NATO Allies 
Albania: Illir Meta, Foreign Minister 
Belgium: Steven Vanackere, Foreign Minister 
Bulgaria: Milen Lyutskanov, Deputy Foreign Minister 
Canada: Lawrence Cannon, Foreign Minister 
Croatia: Gordan Jandrokovic, Foreign Minister 
Czech Republic: Jan Kohout, Foreign Minister 
Denmark: Per Poulsen-Hansen, Permanent Representative to NATO 
Estonia: Urmas Paet, Foreign Minister 
France: Pascale Andreani, Permanent Representative to NATO 
Germany: Guido Westerwelle, Foreign Minister 
Greece: Dimitrios Droutsas, Alternate Foreign Minister 
Hungary: Peter Balazs, Foreign Minister 
Iceland: Thorsteinn Ingolfsson, Permanent Representative to 
NATO 
Italy: Stefano Stefanini, Permanent Representative to NATO 
Latvia: Maris Riekstins, Foreign Minister 
Lithuania: Evaldas Ignatavicius, Vice-Minister of Foreign 
Affairs 
Luxembourg: Jean Asselborn, Foreign Minister 
Netherlands: Maxime Verhagen, Foreign Minister 
Norway: Jonas Gahr Stoere, Foreign Minister 
Poland: Radoslaw Sikorski, Foreign Minister 
Portugal: Luis Amado, Foreign Minister 
Romania: Sorin Ducaru, Permanent Representative to NATO 
Slovakia: Miroslav Lajcak, Foreign Minister 
Slovenia: Samuel Zbogar, Foreign Minister 
Spain: Carlos Miranda, Permanent Representative to NATO 
Turkey: Ahmet Davutoglu, Foreign Minister 
UK: David Miliband, Foreign Secretary 
    Stewart Eldon, Permanent Representative to NATO 
 
 
¶4.  (C) SUMMARY. Deputy Secretary Steinberg, supported by the 
UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, 
Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, said 
it was premature to grant a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to 
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) until it made sufficient reforms 
but that the Alliance should deliver an encouraging message 
of support.  Turkey and Norway led another group of Allies in 
arguing that NATO should invite BiH to join MAP immediately. 
NATO Secretary General (SYG) Rasmussen attempted to find 
consensus by proposing that NATO offer a conditional no or 
conditional yes, but Turkey remained insistent that NATO must 
offer a definitive yes to Bosnia.  The SYG said he would 
introduce compromise language for Ministers to consider the 
following day.  Allies expressed strong support for inviting 
Montenegro to join MAP, although Turkey did not indicate 
whether it would drop its implied linkage with MAP for BiH. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
------------------------------ 
Allies Disagree on MAP for BiH 
 
USNATO 00000580  002 OF 003 
 
 
------------------------------ 
 
¶5.  (C) NATO Secretary General (SYG) Rasmussen opened 
discussion by saying that Ministers needed to weigh carefully 
the risks of not granting a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to 
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).  He advised that, if Ministers 
decided not to grant MAP immediately, they should send an 
encouraging message to BiH.  The SYG observed that, during 
his recent trip to BiH, political leaders across all three 
constituent peoples were united in supporting MAP for BiH and 
arguing that it would serve as an impetus to broader reforms, 
but were unable to articulate concretely how that would be so. 
 
¶6.  (C) Deputy Secretary Steinberg argued that it was too 
soon to grant MAP to BiH, saying doing so now would simply 
reinforce Bosnian political leaders' penchant for adopting 
irresponsible, nationalist positions while expecting the 
international community to solve their problems for them.  He 
said the Alliance needed to give Bosnia a clear signal that 
we want it in NATO and that we may be able to take a positive 
decision on MAP as early as spring 2010, but we need to see 
evidence that Bosnian leaders are putting in place the 
necessary state structures and exercising responsibility and 
accountability. 
 
¶7.  (C) The UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Denmark, 
Netherlands, Belgium, and Czech Republic also said the time 
was not yet right to grant MAP.  Estonia, Lithuania, and 
Latvia questioned Bosnia's readiness for MAP, recalling that 
Ukraine and Georgia were better prepared candidates who the 
Alliance had chosen not to grant MAP.  British Foreign 
Secretary Miliband offered that Ministers could affirm NATO's 
commitment to MAP for BiH when it completed the necessary 
reforms.  Czech Foreign Minister Kohout said NATO should 
postpone granting MAP in order to give Bosnian political 
leaders a few months to demonstrate a willingness to advance 
reforms. 
 
¶8.  (C) Turkey and Norway led a group of Allies, including 
Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, 
Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain, in arguing that Ministers 
should grant MAP to BiH immediately.  Turkish FM Davutoglu 
was insistent that NATO must grant MAP because NATO had a 
special responsibility for Bosnia and because not doing so 
would be destabilizing for BiH and the broader region.  He 
said there could be no constructive no.  Slovenia added that 
not granting MAP now meant not granting it in the spring 
either because reforms would not go ahead before BiH 
elections in fall 2010. 
 
¶9.  (C) Norwegian FM Stoere argued that MAP was a process, 
not membership, and that granting it would give the Alliance 
greater leverage to encourage reform.  FM Stoere, supported 
by Greece and Spain, conceded that if NATO could not find 
consensus on granting MAP, it should give a soft no with a 
clear time perspective.  Luxembourg suggested that the SYG 
should convey such an outcome personally to the Bosnian 
leadership in order to be as encouraging as possible. 
Hungarian FM Balazs, supported by Iceland, Portugal, Romania, 
and Slovakia, said that, rather than giving a conditional no, 
the Ministers could give BiH a conditional yes. 
 
-------------------------- 
SYG Tries to Broker a Deal 
-------------------------- 
 
¶10.  (C) SYG Rasmussen attempted to broker a consensus by 
proposing communique text that would not grant MAP to BiH 
immediately but would signal the Alliance's intention to do 
so as early as April 2010 should BiH make sufficient progress 
on reforms.  FM Davutoglu responded that this was not a 
positive message and Turkey needed a yes on MAP.  UK PermRep 
Eldon said there would be no consensus on granting MAP now 
 
USNATO 00000580  003 OF 003 
 
 
and suggested incorporating FM Miliband's language affirming 
NATO's commitment to grant MAP in the future. 
 
¶11.  (C) SYG Rasmussen, supported by Romania, then tabled a 
new text that would convey that Ministers had decided to 
invite BiH to join MAP but that the decision would not take 
effect until Bosnia demonstrated sufficient progress.  Deputy 
Secretary Steinberg, supported by France, Germany, and The 
Netherlands, said the U.S. could not support taking a 
decision now on MAP but could perhaps work with the 
UK-proposed language.  Norway indicated that it could work 
with the British proposal but not the SYG's new conditional 
yes idea.  The SYG closed the discussion by saying he would 
introduce compromise language for Ministers to consider at 
the NAC session the following day. 
 
------------------------------------- 
Strong Support for MAP for Montenegro 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶12.  (C) The SYG said that, based on his recent trip to 
Podgorica, he believed Montenegro was ready for MAP. 
Germany, Italy, Spain, Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, 
Czech Republic, Greece, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, 
and Romania expressed strong support for granting MAP to 
Montenegro immediately.  The SYG, supported by Belgium, 
Romania, and Spain, cautioned against establishing any 
linkage between Montenegro and BiH's MAP applications, saying 
Montenegro should be judged on its own merits as Heads of 
States and Governments pledged at the Strasbourg-Kehl Summit 
in April.  Turkey did not assert the implied linkage it had 
maintained between Montenegro and BiH during communique 
negotiations, but did not disavow it either. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Netherlands Makes Positive Move on ICTY 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶13.  (C) Dutch FM Verhagen noted International Criminal 
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Chief Prosecutor 
Brammertz's positive report on Serbia's cooperation at the 
UN.  He said that, in light of this report, his government no 
longer needed the Ministerial communique to underline this 
issue but that it should stress the need for Serbia to 
continue to cooperate with ICTY. 
DAALDER