Cablegate: Turkish Views On Oecd Issues

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS ANKARA 002260

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

PARIS FOR USOECD
BRUSSELS FOR USEU

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EFIN ETRD PREL TU RS OECD
SUBJECT: TURKISH VIEWS ON OECD ISSUES

REF: A. SECSTATE 72019

B. SECSTATE 66309

1. (SBU) Summary: Turkey has not yet determined its position
on the U.S. task force proposal or on the Differentiated
Engagement Strategy (DES) at the OECD. The MFA Department
Head responsible for OECD issues, however, outlined Turkey's
general approach to these issues in a way that suggests
significant overlap with U.S. views: Turkey supports
governance reform before enlargement. The MFA official
claimed that Turkey approaches enlargement based on
principles, rather than based on its relations with specific
countries, including Cyprus and Russia. Turkey will not send
anyone from Ankara to the April 28 meeting but three
Ministers--Finance, Trade and Energy--will attend the OECD
Ministerial in May. End Summary.

2. (SBU) In an April 21 meeting, econoff passed ref A letter
from A/S Wayne to MFA Department Head for Multilateral
Economic Affairs Yasemin Eralp Irten. Irten said Turkey had
not yet taken a position on DES or on the U.S. proposal for a
task force on governance. Though Turkey was still studying
these issues, she said Turkey supported DES and enlargement
in principle and generally agrees with the U.S. on the need
to reform governance before considering enlargement. Turkey
has always supported enlargement, according to Irten, but
wants it to be based on well-defined criteria and to take
into account financial considerations.

3. (SBU) Irten claimed that Turkey's approach to enlargement
avoided country-specific considerations in favor of general
criteria. This was true even for countries such as Cyprus or
Russia. In a brief discussion of Russia's increased pressure
to join the OECD (ref B), Irten suggested it would be
desirable for Russia to join the WTO first, or at least at
the same time it joined the OECD, rather than first join the
OECD.

4. (SBU) Irten said no one from Ankara will go to Paris for
the April 28 OECD meeting. At the Ministerial, Finance
Minister Unakitan is expected to lead the delegation on the
first day, but will be replaced by Trade Minister Tuzmen the
second day. Energy Minister Guler will also attend because
of the energy issues on the agenda, she said.
EDELMAN

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