France said it was not going to send a high level delegation to the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development which was going to be chaired by Zimbabwe’s Environment Minister Francis Nhema.
Zimbabwe desk officer Isabelle de Boisgelin said that if Nhema did chair the meeting and claimed to be Zimbabwe’s Minister of Environment and Tourism, France and the UK were likely to express their “reservations” to the UN.
Neither the UK nor France considered Nhema to be a minister, in view of the unresolved elections controversy in Zimbabwe.
She understood that Nhema might chair the meeting as an “advisor” rather than as a “minister” in an effort to avoid this issue.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 08PARIS865, ZIMBABWE/UN COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT:
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Reference ID |
Created |
Released |
Classification |
Origin |
VZCZCXYZ0008
RR RUEHWEB
DE RUEHFR #0865 1261146
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 051146Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2906
INFO RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 6796
RUEHSW/AMEMBASSY BERN 2111
RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 6706
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1786
RUEHCP/AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN 1562
RUEHLJ/AMEMBASSY LJUBLJANA 0485
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 6911
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 2826
RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO 1606
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 2252
RUEHPG/AMEMBASSY PRAGUE 0561
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 8835
RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 1617
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 0718
RUEHTC/AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE 2973
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 2739
RUEHWR/AMEMBASSY WARSAW 0837
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0408
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS 2300
C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 000865
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
DEPARTMENT FOR IO/EDA REBECCA WEBBER AND OES/ENV KERI
HOLLAND
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/05/2018
TAGS: SENV AORC PREL EAGR EUN EAID ECON ZI FR
SUBJECT: ZIMBABWE/UN COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT:
FRANCE TO SEND “SENIOR BUT NOT MINISTERIAL-LEVEL”
REPRESENTATIVES
REF: STATE 40180
Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt,
1.4 (b/d).
¶1. (C) MFA Zimbabwe desk officer Isabelle de Boisgelin on
May 2 said that France would send “senior representatives”
(but not at ministerial level) to the May 5-16 meeting of the
UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-16), to be
chaired by Zimbabwe’s Minister of Environment and Tourism,
Francis Nhema (reftel). The two French representatives will
be Christian Brodhag (Interministerial Delegate for
Sustainable Development), who will lead France’s delegation
for the first portion of the meeting, and Laurent Stefanini
(Ambassador-Delegate for the Environment), who will head the
French delegation for the latter part of the meeting.
¶2. (C) Boisgelin said that France would ordinarily have
sent a minister or secretary of state to head the French team
at such a meeting, but that the GOF very much shared USG
concerns and decided that the level of representation should
be lowered. Boisgelin said that the UK also took this view
and she said that the matter had been much discussed within
the EU, with some EU countries, however, indicating that
ministers would head their delegations.
¶3. (C) Boisgelin said that, if Francis Nhema did chair the
meeting and claimed to be Zimbabwe’s Minister of Environment
and Tourism, France and the UK were likely to express their
“reservations” to the UN. As Boisgelin explained it, neither
the UK nor France considers Nhema to be a GOZ minister, in
view of the unresolved elections controversy in Zimbabwe.
Boisgelin said that she understood that Nhema might chair the
meeting as an “advisor” rather than as a “minister,” in an
effort to avoid this issue.
Please visit Paris’ Classified Website at:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm
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