Cablegate: Mfa Briefs Ambassadors On Forum Arrangements
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
011419Z Nov 05
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MANAMA 001608
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
FOR NEA, NEA/ARPI, NEA/PI, EUR, EAP, WHA
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL KDEM KMPI PHUM ECON BA
SUBJECT: MFA BRIEFS AMBASSADORS ON FORUM ARRANGEMENTS
Sensitive but unclassified; please protect accordingly. Not
for Internet distribution.
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Summary
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1. (SBU) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs October 31 held a
meeting with ambassadors from countries expected to attend
the November 11-12 Forum for the Future conference in Manama
and presented them with copies of the agendas for the
November 11 Senior Officials meeting and November 12
Ministers meeting. They also distributed copies of the draft
Bahrain Declaration. MFA Assistant Under Secretary Shaikh
Abdul Aziz said he expected 32 or 33 foreign ministers and
several other ministers and deputy ministers to participate
in the conference. He said the strongest message to emerge
from the Forum should be that civil society representatives
are fully engaged as equals with governments on the issue of
reform. He noted there will be one GOB-sanctioned "parallel"
forum organized by NGOs to deal with regional reform issues
other than those covered at the official Forum. He proposed
distributing the findings of the parallel meeting to the
ministers. End Summary.
2. (SBU) MFA Assistant Under Secretary for Coordination and
Follow-Up, and lead Forum for the Future (FfF) coordinator,
Shaikh Abdul Aziz bin Mubarak Al Khalifa October 31 chaired a
meeting on Forum arrangements for ambassadors of all
countries invited to and planning to participate in the
conference. Some 35 ambassadors and other senior diplomats
attended (including the Syrian ambassador to Bahrain). The
MFA distributed updated versions of the agendas for the
November 11 Senior Officials meeting and the November 12
Ministers meeting. (Note: Embassy faxed the agendas to
NEA/ARPI and NEA/PI.)
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Over Thirty Ministers to Attend
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3. (SBU) Shaikh Abdul Aziz said he expected 32 or 33 foreign
ministers to attend the Forum as heads of delegation and one
or two deputy FMs. The French Education minister will lead
his delegation. Several other ministers are expected to
attend as members of their national delegations. He
requested that ambassadors query their ministers about their
preferences for making an intervention during the meeting on
November 12. He noted that the Bahraini Embassy in London
had previously forwarded this request to relevant embassies
in London. He explained that only the foreign ministers from
the United States, Bahrain, UK, Jordan, and Morocco would
participate in the closing press conference. All heads of
delegation plus two others would be invited to attend an
opening dinner the evening of November 11, and there would be
a group photo for attending ministers before the conference
opens the morning of November 12.
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Civil Society As Equal Partner
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4. (SBU) Shaikh Abdul Aziz said that the strongest message
to emerge from the Forum should be that civil society
representatives are fully engaged with governments on the
issue of reform. For the first time, NGOs are sitting at the
table as equals to government ministers. Governments need to
hear from the NGOs about their priorities for reform and how
these reforms should be implemented. He noted there will be
a Parallel Forum for the Future conference November 7-8,
organized by Bahraini human rights activist Abdul Nabi Al
Ekry. This conference conforms to the idea of the FfF - that
is, regional reform issues - but does not duplicate Forum
topics. Bahraini and UK government representatives intend to
receive the findings of the parallel conference on the 11th
and distribute them to ministers on the 12th.
5. (SBU) Shaikh Abdul Aziz stated that there likely will be
other competing meetings taking place at the time of the
Forum, but the Bahraini government does not sanction these.
Many will deal with internal politics in Bahrain and other
countries in the area, which does not conform to the regional
focus of the Forum. He warned that representatives of these
conferences will likely try to gain access to G-8 ministers
during their stay in Manama.
6. (SBU) The agenda for the November 11 Senior Officials
meeting (distributed November 1 to G-8 ambassadors) calls for
a full day session, chaired by Shaikh Abdul Aziz. He asked
ambassadors to identify their heads of delegation for the
meeting and the officials' preferred points for intervention.
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Finalizing Texts
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7. (SBU) Shaikh Abdul Aziz noted that the draft text of the
Bahrain Declaration had been distributed to capitals about
ten days earlier. The deadline for providing input was
November 7. He said select Forum participants were working
on the text of the Chairman's Summary and the charter for the
Foundation for the Future.
8. (SBU) He explained that the GOB was arranging four
90-minute roundtable sessions dealing with various Forum
issues to be covered by the press on November 11. The
sessions will feature senior officials from governments
wishing to participate. The GOB had not yet specified the
topics for the roundtables, but asked for input from the
ambassadors on who from their delegations would like to
participate.
MONROE