Morning press briefing from 7 July 2008
Briefing from the Prime Minister's Spokesman on: G8, Zimbabwe, Russia, food prices, oil price and Africa
G8
The Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) began the briefing by running through the day so far. The first event today was a G8 lunch with some of the main African leaders including leaders from Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, as well as the African Union, the UN and the World Bank. At the start of lunch there was a minute's silence for the victims of the 7/7 attacks. That lunch was followed by a meeting with the same group and there would be an informal dinner this evening for the G8 leaders and their spouses. The Prime Minister had bilaterals today with the Japanese Prime Minister Mr Fukuda, with the President of Tanzania who is also head of the African Union, Mr Kikwete, Mr Mbeki, and of course he also met Mr Medvedev.
Tomorrow discussions in the morning would focus on the world economy. They would also be discussing the environment over lunch, and in the afternoon development and food prices. In the evening at dinner they would be discussing some of the wider international foreign policy issues.
Zimbabwe
Asked for more on the Prime Minister's meeting with President Mbeki, and where we were on Zimbabwe, the PMS replied that there was a good discussion in the G8 outreach lunch and in the afternoon session on Zimbabwe. As he said the Prime Minister also discussed this with President Mbeki. There was now widespread acceptance of the illegitimate nature of the election of Mr Mugabe. Of course this was an African problem that required an African solution, but we did need to find a way forward that respected the original election result. There would be a further discussion tomorrow just among the G8 and it would be following that discussion that there would be some language from the G8, he did not anticipate any conclusions language today on Zimbabwe. Of course we would continue to discuss with our G8 partners the issue of sanctions, including further sanctions at the EU as well as at the UN, and we did want to continue to push for access for a UN envoy to Zimbabwe as well.
Asked if there was any kind of feeling of a change of tone from Mbeki, and any thoughts of him being prepared to go a bit further in his public language, the PMS replied that he thought it was best if Mr Mbeki, or his spokesman spoke on behalf of Mr Mbeki's position. It was for Mr Mbeki and the South African Government to discuss the South African position, but from our perspective, as he said this was a good and constructive discussion but no doubt we would continue to discuss with our African partners going forward.
Put that President Kikwete seemed to have suggested there was some discord between Britain and others and between the African nations on how to go forward on Zimbabwe, and asked if Britain would support a unity government with Mugabe as a titular head, or did we want to see some other way forward, the PMS replied that our position on this was very clear, we did not accept the legitimacy of Mr Mugabe's election and therefore in the view of the British Government any solution going forward must respect the original election results. This was the basis on which we would continue to discuss this with our partners.
Asked to clarify that point, because at the time of the first round we did not declare that the MDC had won, and were we now saying that the British Government's view was that Morgan Tsvangirai was the proper President of Zimbabwe, the PMS replied that we were saying that we wanted to see an outcome that respected and reflected the original election results. There was a process in Zimbabwe, and there was a conclusion to the first round of those elections. We then went into a period where there was clear intimidation of the opposition MDC party from the ruling party. We needed to find a way forward, but we needed to find a way forward as the Prime Minister has said many times, where the solution going forward needed to respect and reflect the original election outcome.
Put that the Canadians were saying that there would be extra sanctions very quickly if the situation was not resolved, and is this something that we agreed with, the PMS replied that this was certainly something that we would be discussing with our G8 partners tomorrow. It was important to keep on the table and indeed given the current situation in Zimbabwe push for further sanctions at an EU level as well as at the UN, and that is what we would continue to do.
Asked if immunity from prosecution could form any part of a deal to get Mugabe out, the PMS replied that he was not going to start getting into speculation about any deals or anything of that nature for Mr Mugabe. The key thing, as he had been saying, was that we continued to work with our international partners and discussed with them a constructive way forward that respects and reflects the original election outcome. As he had said he was not going to be a commentator on Zimbabwe constitutional issues. All the British Government was saying was that it was important that whatever outcome we reached was one that reflected the illegitimate nature of the election of Mr Mugabe and reflected the original election outcome.
Asked if that could mean Mugabe staying in a position of some power, the PMS replied that our position was very clear that the election of President Mugabe as President of Zimbabwe was not legitimate.
Asked on Zimbabwe if there was consensus during the G8 meeting this afternoon, and was there any opposition from African nations, the PMS replied that it was a good discussion, and it was a constructive discussion. Of course there were going to be different views around the table but there would be a further discussion among the G8 tomorrow.
Russia
Asked about the meeting with President Medvedev, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had done a clip within the last hour which covered this. He also said some words at the start of the meeting with Mr Medvedev. Following the meeting the Prime Minister described the meeting as constructive. The meeting lasted just over an hour, which was about twice as long as originally planned. The Prime Minister congratulated Mr Medvedev on the victory of Zenit St Petersburg over the Scottish team Rangers, and praised the Russian performance at Euro 2008.
On the serious issues, the Prime Minister raised the three main outstanding issues that we had with Russia - that was the Litvinenko case, the issue relating to BP, and the issues relating to the British Council. On BP, clearly this was primarily a commercial matter between the two companies but there were some issues relating to visas for BP staff that the Prime Minister raised. It was clear that we were not going to solve all of these problems in one meeting, but it was important that we had a constructive relationship with Russia that allowed us to raise and discuss some of these difficult issues with them. They also discussed some of the other issues on which we were much closer to Russia. They had a discussion about the situation in Zimbabwe, they talked about issues relating to energy and oil markets, and they also talked about the global economy, climate change and food prices.
Asked if the Prime Minister was satisfied that enough visas had now been issued to BP employees to make this joint venture work properly, and if not what did he ask the President to do about it, the PMS replied that the number of visas that BP needed for its employees was obviously a matter for BP, but insofar as they were facing difficulties, this was an issue that the Prime Minister raised, and Mr Medvedev assured the Prime Minister that these applications would be treated in the normal way.
Asked if the Prime Minister specifically asked President Medvedev to reconsider his decision not to extradite Andrei Lugovoi over the Litvinenko case, the PMS replied that he was not going to get into a blow by blow account of specifically how and what form of language was used in these discussions, but the issue of Mr Litvinenko and the accusations that had been made about Mr Lugovoi were raised.
Asked what proportion of the meeting was spent on discussing the three critical issues mentioned, the PMS replied that he did not have a stop watch with him, but they probably spent just under half the meeting on the three difficult issues, and just over half the meeting on some of the other issues. This was the first time that they had met, and as he had said it was a good meeting and a constructive meeting. They had spoken on the phone shortly after Mr Medvedev was appointed and the Prime Minister looked forward to further meetings with Mr Medvedev in the future.
Asked if there were any plans for further meetings with Mr Medvedev, the PMS replied that he was sure they would be able to find opportunities in the future.
Food Prices
Asked on food and the Prime Minister's suggestions in relation to food waste, and what specifically could the G8 do, the PMS replied that clearly it was a question of high food prices, and it was a matter that affected millions of families in Britain and billions of people around the world. What the Prime Minister had been saying today, and again this came up in the clip he did in the last hour or so, and what the Cabinet Office paper suggested was that there were a whole range of issues accounting for why food prices were so high and what could be done about it. This was clearly a global problem, and there was more we could do in relation to supply. Specifically the issues that would be discussed here in relation to supply would be what more we could do to increase food production in Africa. CAADP (Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme) had put forward a number of proposals in relation to what we could do to double output on key food staples in Africa in terms of more support for research, innovation, and what we could do to increase agricultural productivity in Africa. So that would form the basis of the discussions here. Of course there were issues as well on the demand side that needed to be discussed. We were publishing today our report on bio fuels, but there were issues in relation to food waste as well that we did need to have a public debate about. This was clearly a big issue for many developing countries which would form part of the discussion here. The Cabinet Office paper cites research which suggested that up to 40% of food in developing countries was lost in transport or through distribution. And clearly there were issues for the UK as well. So just as with high oil prices we needed to look not only at supply but at demand and how we could use energy more efficiently, so we needed to look at both the demand and the supply side issues of food as well.
Oil Price
Asked when would the leaders be discussing the oil price and what the Prime Minister hoped to achieve from his discussions here, the PMS replied that they would be discussing the oil price tomorrow. Tomorrow morning they would be discussing the world economy, they would also be discussing the environment over lunch. The Prime Minister's position on why oil prices were so high and what could be done about it was, as he had stated many times in the past, that what had been driving the higher oil price had been the perception that demand would continue to outstrip supply indefinitely. So as well as looking at what we could do to remove barriers to investment on the supply side, we also needed a credible commitment to reduce dependency on oil and that was why we needed to push ahead with our agenda on nuclear, and we need to push ahead with our agenda on renewables. And also critically for this meeting, and this was where the development agenda was also relevant to this, we needed to look at what more the G8 could do in terms of its support for developing countries to help move them off dependency on oil. We would hope that over time all of this would start having an effect on the oil price.
Africa
Asked on development, did the G8 leaders reaffirm their aid targets for Africa and was there a discussion of greater accountability for Africa, the PMS replied that there was a discussion this morning with the African leaders, and they would have another discussion tomorrow just as the G8 on development issues.
Asked further on the claim that the draft communiqué on aid had taken out the 50 billion figure by 2010, and how concerned was the Prime Minister by that, the PMS replied that we had made our position very clear in relation to the importance of pushing ahead with the development agenda at this meeting. But he was not going to comment on a leaked draft of the communiqué, people should wait for the final communiqué.
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