Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: President of Kazakhstan, Northern Ireland, Middle East Trip and Muslim Youth
President of Kazakhstan
Asked for further information on the Prime Minister’s meeting with President Nazarbayev, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that the UK’s was the third largest investor in Kazakhstan - almost £3 billion since its independence. They were a key strategic player in terms of energy supply, and in 2005, we signed a bilateral agreement on energy, and we hoped to develop even further co-operation in this field in the future. In Iraq, President Nazarbayev had supported their allied efforts, and had contributed to the multinational force.
Asked by PA if the Prime Minister had seen the "Borat" film, the PMOS said that the journalist at least got marks for not having asked the question first! However, just as the PMOS did not give book reviews on behalf of the Prime Minister, nor did he do film reviews either.
Asked again if the Prime Minister had seen the film, the PMOS repeated his previous answer.
Northern Ireland
Asked if the Northern Ireland Secretary enjoyed full support and confidence from the Prime Minister, and also, was the Prime Minister consulted on the appointment of Bertha McDougall, the PMOS replied that Peter Hain did have the Prime Minister’s full support and confidence, and the Secretary of State had said that he would co-operate fully with the investigation. With regards to Bertha McDougall, the PMOS said that he did not comment on internal discussions within Government.
Put that the High Court judge had declared that Peter Hain had been in breach of the Ministerial Code, and did that now mean that the Prime Minister thought that the Code no longer mattered, the PMOS said that there were questions that had been put to the Attorney General which were being investigated, and the Secretary of State had already said that he would co-operate with that. The PMOS said that he was not going to give a running commentary on it.
Asked if there was a second or parallel investigation from No10 being done about whether the Ministerial Code was breached, the PMOS replied that the Attorney General was looking at this matter, therefore, it was important that we let him look at it.
Middle East Trip
Put that the Prime Minister had talked about another trip to the Middle East before Christmas, and was that still a possibility, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister’s intentions were still very clear, and they were still as he had outlined them. What was important was that if people went back to the LA speech, to what he had said to the James Baker committee, and to what he had said repeatedly in recent speeches or interviews, the Prime Minister clearly placed the Middle East at the core of addressing many of the issues that we faced today. The Prime Minister’s determination to do so remained undiminished, and his actions would be in pursuit of that.
Muslim Youth
Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with John Reid that British foreign policy was a factor in the radicalisation Muslim youth, the PMOS replied that what the Prime Minister had said many times was that whether the issue was Iraq, as people now did, or Afghanistan post 9/11, foreign policy issues to try to justify their actions. The root causes of this, however, went much deeper than this country’s foreign policy. The root causes went to the kind of extremist view of Islam which was causing problems not just in this country or the rest of Europe, but also we saw, in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indonesia. People only had to go to the memorial for the victims of the Bali bombs at the corner of Treasury Green. Again, people should recognise that this was multi-faceted, and it was not limited to this country, and if people listened to what President Musharraf and President Karzai had both said, it was strongly in line with what the Prime Minister had said on many occasions.
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