Cablegate: Imf Stand-by Arrangement Review: Swiss Also

VZCZCXYZ0004
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSW #0478 3091531
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 051531Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY BERN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6164
INFO RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0762
RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 7685
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO 0118
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0515
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 3294
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0760
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 1613
RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 3030
RUEHTC/AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE 4108
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0689

UNCLAS BERN 000478

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EEB/IFD/OMA (J.PETERSON), SCA/INSB, AND EUR/CE
(Y.SAINT-ANDRE)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID ECON EFIN PREL PHUM PREF CE SZ
SUBJECT: IMF STAND-BY ARRANGEMENT REVIEW: SWISS ALSO
CONCERNED ABOUT SRI LANKAN DEFENSE SPENDING

REF: STATE 113932

1. (SBU) Acting POLE counselor conveyed reftel points
November 5 to Pierre-Yves Fux, Senior Regional Coordinator
for Southern Asia at the Federal Department of Foreign
Affairs (FDFA), and to Riccardo Sansonetti, Head of the
International Finance and Monetary Policy Division at the
Federal Department of Finance (FDF). Fux subsequently
responded with a coordinated Swiss interagency position.

2. (SBU) Fux said that Switzerland has great understanding
for the USG concerns expressed in reftel, and continues to be
very like-minded on the current situation in Sri Lanka across
the range of issues. He said that the Swiss delegation to
the IMF Executive Board meeting on November 6 will be
instructed to raise concerns about the Sri Lankan defense
budget. Fux said that the GoS had raised this concern
carefully in previous discussions, and would raise it again
at the upcoming review meeting, perhaps with more emphasis
than last time, depending on how the discussion goes.
CARTER

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