Minister is not a minister?

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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VZCZCXYZ0008

RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHFR #0865 1261146

ZNY CCCCC ZZH

R 051146Z MAY 08

FM AMEMBASSY PARIS

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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

STAPLETON

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