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Viewing cable 08LISBON510, PORTUGAL-U.S. BILATERAL COMMISSION; KOSOVO,

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08LISBON510 2008-02-27 16:50 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Lisbon
VZCZCXRO8878
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHLI #0510/01 0581650
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 271650Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY LISBON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6647
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHPD/AMCONSUL PONTA DELGADA 0407
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 LISBON 000510 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL MARR MOPS KDEM PGOV ELAB PO XH AF
SUBJECT: PORTUGAL-U.S. BILATERAL COMMISSION; KOSOVO, 
AFGHANISTAN, ETC. 
 
REF: LISBON 350 
 
LISBON 00000510  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
1. (U) Summary.  The 23rd U.S.-Portugal Bilateral Commission 
examined the state of the bilateral relationship.  Portugal 
will not remove its battalion in Kosovo, supports NATO 
membership for three MAP countries, and will present its 
action plan for the Community of Democracies in the near 
future.  Labor issues at Lajes Air Base dominated 
discussions, but the Portuguese left with a better 
understanding of our position.  The Portuguese responded 
positively to our proposal that the two air forces meet 
before Spring to discuss an airspace training area north of 
the Azores.  End summary. 
 
Bilateral Commission Meets 
-------------------------- 
2. (U) The U.S.-Portugal Bilateral Commission met in Lisbon, 
Portugal February 21 to review the bilateral relationship and 
plan cooperative ventures for the coming year.  The U.S. side 
was led by Ambassador Thomas Stephenson, who was joined by 
State PDAS Kurt Volker and Defense DUSD Patricia Bradshaw. 
The Portuguese delegation was led by MFA Political Director 
Ambassador Vasco Bramao Ramos, joined by Major General Vitor 
Fragoso, Air Force Commander for the Azores.  Although the 
Commission is scheduled to meet twice per year, the Fall 2007 
meeting was cancelled by the Portuguese due to the demands of 
the Portuguese presidency of the European Union during the 
same period. 
 
3. (U) In a departure from previous iterations, both sides 
agreed to use the introductory session to discuss issues of 
global or regional importance, including Afghanistan, Kosovo, 
and the upcoming NATO Summit.  In a second departure from 
previous iterations, the two sides agreed on language for a 
common statement, released following the meeting's closure 
(available on the Embassy and the MFA websites).  PDAS 
Volker's private meetings with Ambassador Bramao Ramos and 
with Ministry of Defense State Secretary (Deputy Minister) 
Joao Mira Gomes will be reported septel. 
 
Kosovo 
------ 
4. (SBU) Bramao Ramos opened the discussion with the 
statement that Portugal's battalion in Kosovo will remain in 
place.  He noted that while the KFOR mission had been 
successful up to now, the mission would be far more demanding 
in the near future due to the troubling political context. 
For that reason, he said Portugal envisaged no reduction of 
forces. 
 
5. (SBU) According to Bramao Ramos, the strenuous objections 
of Serbia and Russia exacerbated the already difficult 
decision many countries had with recognizing and engaging 
Kosovo.  He continued that while the U.S. and many EU states 
argued that Kosovo was a sui generis case, many other 
governments nonetheless considered it a precedent for 
independence claims in other places. 
 
6. (U) Ambassador Stephenson responded that, after dragging 
on for so long, the independence of Kosovo allowed both 
Kosovars and Serbs to move forward and that U.S. and EU 
actions should use this success as a starting point.  PDAS 
Volker added that while Bramao Ramos's points were generally 
true, the recognition of Kosovo "sliced the Gordian knot" and 
allowed for the Balkans to move forward. 
 
Afghanistan 
----------- 
7. (SBU) Bramao Ramos acknowledged changes in Portugal's 
contributions to ISAF this summer.  (Note:  Portugal will 
withdraw its company-strength Quick Reaction Force - QRF - in 
August 2008 and replace it with an Operational Mentoring and 
Liaison Team - OMLT - and a C-130.  The QRF had been assigned 
to Kabul district but, operating essentially without caveats, 
had been repeatedly deployed to the volatile south.  End 
note.)  Bramao Ramos worried that certain sectors of the 
Afghan government had an unwelcome attitude towards partners 
from the international community, although he suggested this 
attitude might be attributable to internal political issues. 
 
8. (U) Each of the delegation leaders noted both the 
successes in Afghanistan thus far and the need for the 
Afghans to take greater responsibility for their country.  In 
this light, Ambassador Stephenson stressed the U.S. gratitude 
for Portugal's contribution of an OMLT and hope for 
additional Portuguese OMLTs. 
 
NATO Summit 
----------- 
 
LISBON 00000510  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
9. (SBU) Discussion of the upcoming summit centered on NATO 
expansion.  Bramao Ramos related his government's support for 
membership invitations for Albania, Macedonia, and Croatia. 
He noted, however, that NATO should tread carefully with the 
Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Ukraine and Georgia.  These 
two nations, he posited, should be kept on the current track, 
but with no invitation to start MAP now as they would "import 
problems and export instability." 
 
10. (SBU) PDAS Volker responded that the U.S. supports three 
nations in the MAP, based on their performance under such 
criteria as defense reform, domestic administration, and 
formalized economies.  He cautioned that the Macedonian name 
dispute continues to be a problem for Greece and hoped that 
the two countries would address it immediately, as a Greek 
veto could trigger a downward spiral with Macedonia. 
Regarding Ukraine and Georgia, PDAS Volker noted that MAP 
does not equal membership but could help encourage their 
governments to take steps necessary for deeper engagement 
with the west. 
 
Community of Democracies 
------------------------ 
11. (U) Ambassador Stephenson praised Portugal's presidency 
of the EU as an example of strong leadership and hoped that 
Portugal would put the same effort toward its 
recently-assumed chairmanship of the Community of Democracies 
(CD).  Bramao Ramos responded that Portugal was serious about 
this institution and that MFA State Secretary (Deputy 
Minister) Joao Cravinho would take direct responsibility for 
Portugal's leadership.  An action plan, said Bramao Ramos, 
would be shared with us soon. 
 
Labor Issues at Lajes Air Base 
------------------------------ 
12. (U) Ambassador Bramao Ramos noted that the level of 
annual pay increases for the U.S. Air Force's Portuguese 
civilian employees at Lajes Air Base has been a bilateral 
irritant for several years.  DUSD Bradshaw explained that the 
USAF conducts a salary survey in the Azores to identify 
relevant data to define salary increases, but U.S. law 
mandates that salary increases cannot exceed the higher of 
either the U.S. civilian pay increase or the host government 
civilian pay increase.  In tracing the history of the Lajes 
Labor Agreement, DUSD Bradshaw demonstrated that the U.S. 
salary increase cap was known to all participants in the 
negotiations and that the resultant Work Regulations 
specifically note that "Wage proposals shall be developed in 
conformity with appropriate DOD manuals."  For this reason, 
DUSD Bradshaw stressed that the USAF is and has been in 
compliance with the agreement, but that workers were free to 
pursue their claims in court. 
 
13. (U) Regional Government of the Azores (RGA) 
representative Andre Bradford took issue with DUSD Bradshaw's 
explanation, stressing that the RGA's interpretation "is 
different."  Both sides agreed to disagree and, while there 
was no formal agreement to do so, leadership of both 
delegations noted the need for the Labor Committee to 
consider amending the Work Regulations to remove the salary 
survey altogether.  In his opening statement, Ambassador 
Stephenson noted that the U.S. is contractually bound to its 
course of action and that opening the Labor Agreement 
entailed some risk to the Portuguese workers as many of their 
existing benefits may be brought into negotiations. 
 
Additional Missions for Lajes 
----------------------------- 
14. (U) Ambassador Stephenson noted that the missions of the 
U.S. armed forces in the Azores had always evolved and that 
it is important to continue consideration of new missions to 
take advantage of the infrastructure in place and to 
guarantee the long-term viability of a USG presence at Lajes. 
 Ambassador Stephenson noted that recent informal discussions 
regarding the possible establishment of a training airspace 
north of the Azores had received surprisingly frequent news 
coverage and proposed that the two air forces meet before 
Spring to discuss the merits of such a training space.  Any 
formal proposal to create such an activity, he stressed, 
would best come from the Portuguese.  Bramao Ramos agreed and 
noted that he would report to his government the proposal to 
have the two air forces meet. 
 
Military Cooperation 
-------------------- 
15. (U) Portuguese military planners reviewed cooperative 
ventures since the last meeting, noting revisions in pilot 
training needs and several specific military training 
requests.  They also reiterated a desire to have defense 
 
LISBON 00000510  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
policy staffs meet on a regular basis.  (Note:  This request 
stems from the last Bilateral Commission meeting; such 
meetings will be incorporated into the Bilateral Commission 
structure.  U.S. defense policy officials were unavailable to 
attend this meeting due to the short advance warning given 
for the dates.  We envision including such discussions at the 
Fall 2008 meeting.  End note.) 
 
16. (U) CDR Bradfield, Chief of the ODC, provided updates on 
the current state of International Military Education and 
Training (IMET) program and of the maritime training 
initiative that Portugal requested at the last Bilateral 
Commission meeting.  The training initiative, CDR Bradfield 
noted, is in jeopardy as it is unclear that Portugal will 
invite Lusophone African navies to participate as originally 
agreed.  CDR Bradfield noted the U.S. needs a final answer 
from Portugal no later than the end of March 2008. 
 
17. (U) Col. Briggs, the 65th Air Base Wing Commander at 
Lajes, introduced the need for the Lajes Air Field runway to 
be resurfaced.  The runway, he noted, is critical for the 
economy of the island and is principally used by civilian 
traffic.  As the Agreement on Cooperation and Defense (ACD) 
stipulates that such infrastructure costs are to be shared, 
Col. Briggs recommended that the Technical Committee discuss 
funding sources and timelines.  The Portuguese delegation 
agreed to refer the issue to the Technical Committee and 
Bradford noted the RGA understands the urgency and would 
engage commensurate with the RGA's means. 
 
Azorean Cooperation; Science and Technology 
------------------------------------------- 
18. (U) Col. Briggs presented the annual Economic Impact 
Analysis that demonstrated that the U.S. military presence at 
Lajes had a total impact on the Azorean economy of $113 
million in FY2007.  The two delegations submitted status 
reports on other infrastructure, public diplomacy, and 
economic development projects.  The report of the recently 
concluded meeting of the Science and Technology Committee 
will be reported septel. 
 
Comment 
------- 
19. (U) The new approach to the Bilateral Commission -- based 
on a plan we developed after the last meeting in 2007 -- was 
useful, allowing for a greater exchange of ideas.  We hope to 
implement the rest of our reform plan for the Bilateral 
Commission in the Fall 2008 meetings in Washington, where we 
hope to minimize discussion of past accomplishments and use 
the forum to plan future engagement.  The Lajes labor 
discussions dominated the meeting.  While the issue will 
continue to simmer in the near term, the greater 
understanding the Portuguese now have of our legally-mandated 
position should minimize the level of rhetoric. 
 
20. (U) PDAS Volker did not have the opportunity to clear on 
this cable. 
Stephenson