Cablegate: France/Un: Draft Reform Resolution Useful; Time To

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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHFR #4477 1791553
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 281553Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9094
INFO RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0797
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 6164
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 2423

UNCLAS PARIS 004477

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CORRECTED COPY - CAPTION ADDED
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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AMGT AORC EU EUN PREL UNGA FR
SUBJECT: FRANCE/UN: DRAFT REFORM RESOLUTION USEFUL; TIME TO
LIFT BUDGET CAP

REF: STATE 105146

1. (SBU) Embassy delivered reftel demarche points at
opening of business on June 27 to MFA IO PDAS-equivalent
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, DAS-equivalent Jean-Hugues Simon-Michel,
and IO desk officer Nicholas Kassianides. Lacroix offered
feedback on June 28 in which he emphasized French concurrence
on reform priorities, with only minimal divergences. He
underscored the utility of floating the draft resolution as a
kind of marker for orienting the continuing debate on reform,
but he advised against calling a vote at the present moment.
He remarked that the French mission reports that the
atmosphere at the General Assembly (GA) appears to have taken
a turn for the better, that GA President Eliasson was making
moves in the right direction, and that many G-77 members were
now ready to engage on reform. Lacroix averred that the
budget cap had served its purpose by provoking a healthy
crisis in order to relaunch the debate on reform. The French
MFA now favors lifting the budget cap by consensus, with U.S.
and UK support.

2. (SBU) Comment and Biographical Note: Lacroix heads to
New York in August as the new French Deputy Permanent
Representative. Embassy has found him a constructive,
accessible and collected interlocutor, authoritative and
unerring in his presentation of French policy positions,
extremely knowledgeable about the UN, and non-polemical in
his approach to Embassy interlocutors.

Please visit Paris' Classified Website at:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm

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