24 April 2007
Tony Blair held talks in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Kofi Annan, saying that “much more” must be done to tackle poverty in Africa.
They met with other World Leaders to discuss the on-going work of the Africa Progress Panel, the group established by the Prime Minister last June to hold the world to account for the promises made to and by Africa during UK’s G8 Presidency in 2005.
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German Chancellor:
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be able to welcome the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, here yet again and I am actually delighted that there is a threesome here, because Kofi Annan has joined us, who is responsible for the African Progress Panel, and I was very glad to welcome the members of the African Progress Panel in my capacity as G8 Chairperson. It was founded during the G8 Summit Meeting in Gleneagles where we agreed on the Millennium Goals for Africa and their enforcement and their implementation and the African Progress Panel actually feels committed to turning these into reality, that there is indeed a sort of reckoning on both the G8 countries’ and on the African countries’ side as to what they have actually done over the course of the year to fulfil those Millennium Goals together with our Minister of Economic Co-Operation and with our sherpa (phon.) we met and had an exchange of views and made clear that we feel that there is indeed a continuity here. We are going to take up where Gleneagles left off. This was a very important impetus. Let me remind you also of the G8 meeting in Cologne where a very large scale debt relief - debt cancellation - was agreed on in 2000. Apart from questions related to financial commitments, we would also like to devote our time in Heiligendamm during the G8 meeting to an improvement of the overall framework conditions for their development.
We also invited the NAPOD (phon.) founding members, apart from the outreach countries that will participate in the G8 programme. We will talk to them, and talk together with them, and build up trust between us so that time and again we have an exchange of views and ideas about where we feel we stand and where we ought to improve on our performance.
Kofi Annan will also tell us about what he feels we ought to do. In September we will convene a Conference here in Germany that has as its purpose to look at the possible replenishment of the fund for infectious diseases and that too needs to be based on the work of Heiligendam so that the necessary political support is given to that September Conference. I was delighted to have the African Progress Panel here as our honoured guests. I would like to thank you for your very good work and we agreed that towards the end of our G8 Presidency, that is towards the end of this year, we will meet yet again and try and see where we stand, take some stock on what the G8 Presidency has managed to do and what not, and thank you, Tony Blair, for taking that initiative in Gleneagles, launching this African Progress Panel. and thank you Kofi Annan for the fact that you are Chairing this, and we will all be in on this together.
Prime Minister:
First of all can I thank the German Chancellor very much for her kind and warm welcome and for receiving not just myself but also the Africa Progress Panel and extend my thanks also to Kofi Annan for his Chairmanship of the Panel.
At Gleneagles we set out some very bold action for the international community, in order that that community help Africa’s development, and in addition we sought some very strong assurances from African nations about their part in a partnership for that development and progress. And first of all I would like to say that there has been an immense amount of progress, but we know that there is very much more that still needs to be done. We know that more needs to be done in terms of the commitment on things such as aid, the World Trade talks, building up Africa’s capability for example for conflict resolution and the peacekeeping force that it will require. We also know that there are still far too many Africans who die when their death is preventable, with the right help.
However it is also worth pointing out that there has been indeed much that has been done. Debt relief has contributed somewhere in the region of some $38 billion dollars. There have been significant, though not enough, increases in the aid money that has been given. The Africa Peacekeeping Force has been begun. There are far more people today receiving IV Aids treatment, there are additional numbers - hundreds of thousands, millions of them - who are getting education. African children getting education for the first time. And this is the second point that I would like to make. But what is very clear from the work that has been done, not just by the Progress Panel, but actually done by the International Institutions, is that where the help is given it does make a difference, and there are health service systems and education systems being transformed and changed as a result of the help and the commitment that has been given by the international community.
Likewise, incidentally, though we can all point to the very obvious examples of poor government and conflict in Africa, nonetheless there are also many examples of African countries where there have been changes of government through proper democratic participation and where conflicts, previously thought intractable and insoluble, have indeed been solved. So I think what that means is that it is all the more important to take the processes that were begun at Gleneagles and make sure that they are carried through. And I welcome very much the German Presidency’s decision to put Africa again on the G8 agenda. We know that this has got a long way to go, and there are many, many things to do, but that commitment from the international community is still there and what is more I am sure that it is still echoed by civic society and by people throughout Europe and throughout the western world.
And one final, final point which is this, that the more that I look at what is happening in Africa in some of the worst trouble spots, Sudan, Somalia and so on, I am convinced that if we do not take a responsible and long-term view of Africa and its need to develop and make progress, then we will end up ultimately with our own self-interest, back in countries like Germany and the UK, being damaged as a result of the poverty, the conflict, the mass migration, the spread of terrorism and so on. So I think this is a strong moral cause, but I also think it is a cause closely allied to our own self-interest.
Once again, Angela, thank you very much for having us here today and I look forward to continuing our discussions on many other topics as well later. Thank you.
Kofi Annan:
First, I want to thank PM Tony Blair, he was one of the people who launched this idea at the very successful meeting in Gleneagles. We would want to be helpful. We would want to work with the G8 and other countries and the African countries to implement the Millennium Development Goals and to work with them to honour the promises that were made. We are not asking for new promises. We are asking for the implementation of what has been promised, and I am encouraged by the meeting we have had this morning and the support we have received from both leaders and particularly Angela for putting Africa back at the centre of G8 meetings. And we look forward to working with her and other G8 members and the African leaders. Today we are here presenting our views and our judgements with the two leaders, and we intend to do the same with the African leaders. We intend to see the President of the African Union to discuss progress which could be made. After all it is a partnership and there are responsibilities on both sides.
I would also want to echo what Tony said that there is quite a bit of progress in Africa. We have resolved many conflicts and the African leaders do realise that they have to resolve these political conflicts to be able to focus on economic and social issues. Just to remind ourselves, Angola has been resolved, Sierra Leone has been resolved, Liberia has been resolved, Burundi, we stopped the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. We organised the first ever elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 45 years, and there is hardly any military ruler in Africa today. So there is progress and democracy is a process and not an event. And when I look at the exciting project of the European Union today it gives me hope. Today I personally believe that war in Europe is unthinkable and yet this is a continent that saw two world wars and I hope that my children, or their grandchildren, will say tomorrow war in Africa is unthinkable. So let us all work together to really make Africa what it can be, and what it ought to be.
We will issue periodic reports which we will share with the leaders and also with civil society which was an essential part of the Gleneagles process and I look forward to coming back here later in the year to join you, Madame Chancellor, on the replenishment conference for the HIV AIDS and Tuberculosis and Malaria, and then later on in the year to assess where we are with the implementation of the Gleneagles programme.
Thank you very much.
Question: (Translated from German)
A question to Kofi Annan. You have only just said that you do not want to have any new commitments, but you would be happy to see the old commitments fulfilled. What are these commitments?
And a question to the Chancellor, are you ready to make progress on the commitments that have not yet been fulfilled, and to pledge your support during the G8 Summit?
Mr Annan:
The commitment that by 2010 there will be an additional $25 billion dollars for development assistance. In 2005 we did very well. In 2006 we are sliding a bit, and unless we step up and make available about $5 billion dollars a year moving forward, we will not meet that target. And yet we live in a world today where there is considerable prosperity and lots of liquidity around - even in Africa - where the commodity prices African governments are doing well. The global economy is growing and we should seize this unique opportunity to try and push forward our efforts to get Africa off on the right track.
German Chancellor:
Maybe there is some sort of misunderstanding. The commitments of Gleneagles as well as the Millennium Goals are goals that look into the future, so we do not need to define any additional goals but it is important that the development goals are already defined for Africa, so we need to seize the opportunity to take the appropriate steps in order to fulfil the goals. That means that by 2010 and then by 2015 we will have to meet certain goals, and so we need to make certain progress. I support all the goals and we need to ensure that there is no stagnation and that by 2008 or 2009 we will have to realise that we have not taken appropriate steps and that we did not do the things that were necessary and with regard to Africa, it is important not to define priorities again and again. But we have a specific structure and both the industrialised countries and the developing countries need to fulfil their obligations and we need to build up trust between one another.
Question:
The problem though is, we are less than 2 years after Gleneagles and the fact of the matter is that the pledges made there have not been fulfilled, even though it was talking about relatively small amounts of money compared to national budgets. I wonder if either, or any, of you could cast any light on why you think it is that governments have not managed to fulfil their promises. I know that Britain and America have a relatively good record in this respect, and could it possibly be that because of Iraq it was really a mistake for Britain to try and take the moral leadership on this global question.
Prime Minister:
Whew! Well I think we are certainly getting into a few other things there. Look in respect of the commitments that we entered into in Gleneagles, actually there have been increases in aid, but there is a 2010 commitment and we have got to try to meet it and what the German Chancellor has just been saying I think is very important in that regard and in fact by putting it back on the agenda for Heiligendamm and the German G8 this year, we have a further opportunity to re-commit to those promises that have been made.
But in other areas for example, like debt relief, support for education, HIV AIDS treatment, the Africa Peacekeeping Force, yes we are in the process of making those commitments good, but those commitments will stretch over a period of time, so for example it as near universal access for HIV AIDS treatment by 2010. We have been ramping up the amount of treatment. I think there are hundreds of thousands of people more now getting the treatment than were getting it before, but we need to increase that still further. So I think the truth is this, that we have made progress, we do need to do much more, but this will be a very important time, at the German G8 this year, for us to make clear that those commitments, the process that we entered into a couple years ago is still continuing with full international support and that is why I think it is very important that the German Presidency of the G8 has put it back on the agenda.
German Chancellor:
Well, I agree once again what Tony Blair has only just said. The goal for the ODA quota runs up until 2010 and we need to fulfil it and if you look at 2007 you will see that the Minister for Economic Co-Operation has already seen an increase in her budget and we are aware of our commitment for 2008 and she will again be able to review what has already been done. There will be an increase in the budget and the Minister is here and for this reason she will be very grateful to you for asking this question because we thus have the opportunity to underline this once again.
You say that you need to fulfil the commitments made but I still remember a speech that you gave to your Party and you underlined that in Africa we need to promote a development in those countries that are committed to good governance. I wonder whether you have readjusted your policies to focus on only a few countries with regard to your commitments of Gleneagles. Do you want to support some countries in particular?
We as the donor countries, and this is my opinion, need to underline that we support those in particular, and this is a principle of German development co-operation, so that we need to promote and support those that also see a specific development at home because we want all Africans, all the African people, to benefit from these developments, and NEPAD is a very interesting group because they have committed themselves to observing specific development standards - and you know it is always worthwhile to have a pop star and just to return to the situation at hand, of course we want the people to benefit from our support and for this reason we need active institutions and we specifically invite NAPOD because they are committed to specific criteria, and maybe this group will be further extended in Africa. This is also a welcome development in Africa. You know that we have major problems in Africa, just to mention Sudan or Zimbabwe, and of course we do not want to ignore these problems but of course specific standards need to be maintained.
Question:
Does that mean that countries that are not committed to these criteria, that is good governance for instance, will see a cut in financial resources.
German Chancellor:
Well I am not talking about cuts. We have a proven policy in development aid and of course I do not want to frighten off anyone involved in development co-operation in Africa. But I would like to underline that there are specific and good reasons in order to pool specific issues for instance: fighting infectious diseases such as HIV AIDS. Education is another important issue. We know that education is the key to well run institutions, to fighting diseases, to economic growth, to the administration of small loans, micro loans, and another question was how to use micro loans even better than today. We are not only talking about the total amount of money but also about the instruments, the tools, used for spending that money and of course we need to select appropriate partners so that the taxpayers will in the end see the success of our measures. If for instance we can say that we have saved 2 million people’s lives or we have provided safe drinking water to however many people, or that women have received micro loans and so on, because our taxpayers, our people, want to know that what they are doing, what they are paying, is actually worthwhile.
Question:
Prime Minister you know that it has been one of the big priorities of the German Presidency of the EU, and up to now really I think the British have been dragging their feet on the whole subject of the EU Constitution, what kind of a treaty can you accept or, more to the point, sell to the British public?
Prime Minister:
Well, I mean I set out the British position on this when I did a press conference with the Dutch Prime Minister some days ago and obviously what I am going to do this evening, when we have the chance to sit down and talk about, and talk with the Presidency of the European Union about the June Summit. Remember it was always the idea that there would be a period of reflection after the French and Dutch “No’s” and then we would come back at a later time, so what is happening is a process that has been agreed for some time now. I think it is fairly obvious that in Europe there are different perspectives and different positions so we have got to see whether it is possible to reach an agreement that allows Europe to work effectively and move forward, and that is the purpose of the discussions. I am grateful to the Presidency for giving us the chance to talk about it tonight. But as I said a couple of weeks ago, when I was with Prime Minister Balkanende, it is best that we have that discussion and then obviously there will be a debate about it in June.
Question:
Chancellor at the beginning you said that you were glad to be able to work with Tony Blair yet again. This will not happen all that often. Maybe he will be here for the last time in the Chancery. What will you miss most about him?
German Chancellor:
Well I am actually a human being who likes to live in real time in the sense that the moment is now and I must say I was delighted to welcome him tonight and I actually very much doubt that this will be the last time here in the Chancery. And anyway there are a lot of tasks still ahead of us particularly as regards the G8. This is a crucial moment in time for preparing this meeting. So I am very grateful that he took time to come here and also that the members of the African Progress Panel took time to be here. We have an enormously important agenda. Look at the Constitutional Treaty. A lot of eyes are concentrating on that. I would be so grateful if the British media would say Constitutional Treaty. I mean it would already be a very special step forward.
And secondly we also need to address the issue whether we will be able to make progress in the World Trade round. It has a lot to do with Africa obviously. We will also need to concentrate on transatlantic economic relations, looking ahead to the EU/US Summit. We will look at international issues such as the Middle East. How do we deal with Iran? So the next few weeks to come are crucial weeks as I see it. Will we be able to make progress on a number of important international issues or not? So life in real time and in the present will be very much filled with life.
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