Cablegate: Canadian Response to Demarche On Closing the Gap

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

051614Z Aug 05

UNCLAS OTTAWA 002368

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL CA AF EAID
SUBJECT: CANADIAN RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE ON CLOSING THE GAP
FOR AFGHANISTAN'S NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS

REF: STATE 143648

1. (U) Poloff delivered reftel demarche points to Nadia
Ahmad, Foreign Affairs Canada Policy Advisor for Afghanistan,
and Econoff delivered them to Jonathan Lane, Desk Officer at
CIDA. We were told that Canada is fully supportive of making
the elections work and will do whatever it can to ensure
there is no slippage in dates. They were aware of the
shortfall and have begun looking at ways Canada might be able
to shift some of its funding for Afghanistan from current
programs to additional elections support, on top of the USD
$6.2 million which it has provided. This will have to wait
until Minister Carroll returns from travel, which will be in
the next week. They hope to have an answer by August 15.
Ahmad also mentioned that Canada would be supporting the OSCE
electoral observer mission with funding and leadership, and
would be supporting the new parliament with technical
training and mentoring through the Parliamentary Center, an
NGO dedicated to improving the quality of representative
assemblies in Canada and abroad.

2. (U) Note: Since the 2002 Tokyo Conference Canada has
pledged more than C$616 million (almost US$500 million) in
reconstruction and development assistance to Afghanistan,
making it the single largest recipient of Canadian aid.

Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa

WILKINS

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