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DE RUEHMD #0181/01 0471240
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R 161240Z FEB 10 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY MADRID
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1943
INFO RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1105
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1559
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 0266
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 0001
RUEHOS/AMCONSUL LAGOS 0001
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEWMFD/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0549

UNCLAS MADRID 000181 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/W, OSD FOR DASD HUDDLESTON, NSC FOR GAVIN, LONDON 
FOR POL(LORD), PARIS FOR POL(BAIN AND KANEDA), ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR 
AU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL SP
SUBJECT: ASSISTANT SECRETARY CARSON'S MEETING WITH SPANISH VICE 
MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS ANGEL LOSSADA 
 
¶1.  Summary.  On January 28, Assistant Secretary for African 
Affairs, Johnnie Carson, met with Spanish Vice Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, Angel Lossada, on bi-lateral issues related to Africa. 
Lossada described Spanish interests and concerns in West Africa; 
requested U.S. views on a proposed conference on Somalia; concurred 
with maintaining UN peacekeepers in the Congo; and urged increased 
U.S.-Spanish cooperation on narcotics, terrorism, and trafficking in 
persons.  Carson stressed the importance of judicial action against 
pirates and drug traffickers, advised that a possible conference on 
Somalia required careful advanced planning among all participants, 
and welcomed increased bi-lateral cooperation on shared concerns 
throughout the continent.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  Following the January 28 EU-U.S. Political Dialogue Meeting on 
African Issues in Madrid, Assistant Secretary Carson conferred with 
Vice Minister Lossada on bi-lateral issues.  Lossada explained that 
Spain's foreign policy had not been directed toward Western Africa 
until recently.  Now, he said, Spain recognized West Africa as its 
neighbor and as the origin of numerous problems impacting the 
Spanish people.  He noted the flow of narcotics, illegal 
immigration, trafficking in persons, and terrorism passing from the 
Sahel region to Spain and the rest of Europe.  Spain had responded 
by opening several Spanish diplomatic missions in the region and had 
revised its African Plan, first developed in 2004. 
 
¶3.  Assistant Secretary Carson acknowledged a common alliance 
between the U.S. and Spain on West Africa and the need to address 
global issues there.  He referred in particular to the flow of 
narcotics from Central America to the Gulf of Guinea and other West 
African ports, stating that the same people who have been pushing 
drugs to the U.S. were now transporting narcotics to Europe through 
West Africa.  Carson identified Ghana and Sierra Leon as two 
countries that had cooperated in arresting drug traffickers and 
extraditing them to the U.S. to face justice. 
 
¶4.  Lossada called the Sahel a vacuum where terrorism and organized 
crime went largely unchecked due to the lack of will and capacity 
among African nations to address security issues.  He said that 
cooperation among African nations was not working and that regional 
integration was not taking place.  Nevertheless, Lossada felt that 
there had been some progress on illegal immigration resulting from 
repatriation agreements and tighter border controls with certain 
African nations.  He stressed the need for better mechanisms to 
control legal flows of immigrants and linkages between immigration 
and the labor market.  Repatriations, he argued, had dissuaded 
potential illegal immigrants from risking their lives at sea and 
discouraged mafias engaged in trafficking. 
 
¶5.  Lossada asked for U.S. views on a possible conference on 
Somalia.  Assistant Secretary Carson responded that the U.S. is 
heavily committed in Somalia and believes more must be done to 
support President Sharif and the Transitional Federal Government 
(TFG).  However, Carson advised that any such conference required 
extensive prior planning, advance discussions with all participants, 
and determination of objectives to ensure that impetus is given to 
achieving strategic goals.  He pointed out that all players needed 
to be contacted, including key Arab states, the UN, and African 
states so that the conference becomes something more than a 
reaffirmation of previous unfulfilled commitments.  In the past, he 
said, many players spoke nicely and pledged funding, but did not 
follow up with financial or public support. 
 
¶6.  Lossada readily concurred with Assistant Secretary Carson, 
stating that careful planning is critical.  He maintained that a 
lack of momentum surrounds the TFG which must enlarge its 
territorial influence to survive.  It is time, he said, to change 
the situation.  Spain wants donors to deliver on previous financial 
pledges so that trained security forces can get paid.  He opined 
that piracy will continue as long as the TFG lacks credibility and 
pirates receive enormous sums of ransom money.  Lossada said that 
the international community needed to refocus on Somalia.  Lossada 
underscored that Spain would not call a conference by itself, but 
rather he sought U.S. views on whether the timing is right for Spain 
to encourage the UN to host a conference on Somalia. 
 
¶7.  Assistant Secretary Carson reiterated that the concept of a 
conference could work, as long as it is well planned to achieve the 
 
desired outcome.  He said that many Arab states such as Saudi Arabia 
and the Gulf states stand on the sidelines and that some African 
states could be far more helpful.  Carson cautioned against a 
Brussels - type conference where countries make pledges and then 
don't deliver. 
 
¶8.  Referring to the EU-U.S. Political Dialogue, Assistant Secretary 
Carson reported general agreement that UN peacekeepers (MONUC) 
should not be precipitously withdrawn from the Democratic Republic 
of the Congo.  Carson said that a new mandate for the peacekeepers 
could better define their role.  However, a sudden withdrawal of 
these forces would likely result in an explosion of violence in 
eastern Congo, particularly against women.  Carson warned that 
President Kabila had political motives for ending the UN 
peacekeeping presence, but such a move would be destabilizing.  On a 
brighter note, Carson noted improved relations between Kinshasa and 
Kigali. 
 
¶9.  Lossada acknowledged improved relations between Kinshasa and 
Kigali, but fully concurred in maintaining UN peacekeepers in the 
Congo.  He said that MONUC is essential to avoid the spread of 
violence from the eastern Congo to the rest of the country. 
 
¶10.  In summing up, Lossada said there had been a significant change 
in Spain's thinking about West Africa.  He saw both a threat and an 
opportunity stemming from insecurity in the region.  As a result of 
illegal immigration and drug trafficking in West Africa, Spain had 
opened new diplomatic missions, increased development assistance, 
established stronger ties to the Economic Community of West African 
States (ECOWAS), and stepped up cooperation with Ministers of the 
Interior in the region.  Spain, he said, wanted to work more 
intensely with the EU, Portugal, France and others on global issues 
in West Africa such as poverty, illegal immigration and drug 
trafficking.  Lossada said Spain was acting in its own self interest 
as a matter of national security and he welcomed increased 
cooperation with the United States in West Africa. 
 
¶11.  Assistant Secretary Carson thanked Lossada for his views and 
referred to Secretary Clinton's strong emphasis on working together 
with European partners and allies.  Carson said that we are stronger 
when we work together on shared ideas. 
 
SOLOMONT