VZCZCXYZ0007
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMD #0062 0211611
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 211611Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY MADRID
TO RUEHPG/AMEMBASSY PRAGUE PRIORITY 1053
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1716
INFO RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL PRIORITY 0219
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS MADRID 000062 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR DERECK HOGAN, S/RAP 
PRAGUE FOR JOHN LAW 
KABUL PLEASE PASS TO STATE AND USAID REPS AT PRT QAL-E-NOW 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL NATO EAID KPAO AF SP
SUBJECT: SPANISH PARTICIPATION IN PRAGUE PRT CONFERENCE 
JANUARY 25-27 
 
REF: STATE 3595 
 
¶1. (SBU) Post conveyed reftel invitation and talking points 
to key contacts at Spanish Ministries of Defense and Foreign 
Affairs the week of January 11, and learned that Spain will 
be represented by the civilian team leader from its 
provincial reconstruction team and possibly by local embassy 
staff.  According to Cristobal Ramon Valdes Valentin-Gamazo, 
Head of the Department of Cooperation with Asian and Eastern 
Europe within Spain's Agency for Cooperation and 
International Development (AECID), Spain will be represented 
by the civilian representative at the Spanish-run PRT in 
Qal-e-Now, Badghis Province, Regional Command-West.  Borja 
Morate, also described as Spain's Political Advisor to the 
PRT, is a well respected career diplomat (the second in this 
role) who was posted to Afghanistan in September 2009. 
Morate works closely with USG reps at the Spanish PRT and 
reports regularly to Spain's embassy in Kabul and to the 
MFA's Asia and cooperation/foreign assistance offices. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Defense Minister Carme Chacon's schedule will not 
permit her to attend the conference, according to contacts 
close to the minister.  The invitation was brought informally 
to the attention of USDP-equivalent Luis Cuesta on or around 
January 13.  Cuesta was not invited in his own right and 
Chacon, who was, is unlikely to send an alternate at this 
time.  According to MFA Subdirector General for Continental 
Asia Jose Luis Garcia Galan, Spanish S/RAP-equivalent Special 
Ambassador for Afghanistan and Pakistan Rafael Mendivil is 
also unlikely to attend the conference.  Mendivil will be 
directly involved in the lead-up to the January 28 London 
conference for Afghanistan donors, and Spain has no Deputy 
S/RAP equivalent.  Garcia Galan and other working-level 
contacts at Defense and Foreign Affairs were grateful for 
information about the conference but did not seem to have 
been briefed prior to our encouraging senior-level 
participation.  Defense policy staff further indicated 
January 15 they were otherwise occupied with the management 
of military and civilian aircraft bearing humanitarian relief 
for Haiti and would be unable focus attention on the Prague 
conference.  Our contacts further confirmed January 21 that 
no one from the Spanish MOD will attend, saying MFA has the 
lead. 
 
¶3. (SBU) COMMENT:  Spanish presence and participation in this 
conference is important to our bilateral and multilateral 
agenda in Spain.  According to the Defense Minister's Special 
Advisor for International Affairs, however, the original 
invitation letter appeared to come directly from the 
Executive Director of the Prague Security Studies Institute 
and was only addressed to Minister Chacon herself.  Our 
defense contacts told us they assumed it was "just another 
think-tank conference on Afghanistan" and did not realize 
that the USG was so deeply involved in its organization. 
While it would not have made a difference with the Minister's 
schedule, they informed us they would have focused on 
considering an MOD or other GOS representative had the letter 
offered that option to the Minister.  They also indicated 
that Spanish Embassy staff in Prague seemed unaware of the 
conference and noted they had not been invited, though Post 
understands the Spanish Embassy in the Czech Republic was 
involved in conference planning discussions.  END COMMENT. 
SOLOMONT