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G8 Summit
3.31 pm
The Prime Minister (Mr. Tony Blair): With permission, Madam Speaker, I should like to make a statement on the G8 summit in Birmingham last weekend. Since they are relevant, I will also touch on the European Union-United States summit in London on Monday and the World Trade Organisation meeting I attended yesterday in Geneva. I have placed in the Library of the House the documents issued at those events.
I start by warmly congratulating Birmingham on how it played its part as host. The city looked magnificent and the preparations impressed all the visiting leaders, their delegations and visiting members of foreign media. I take this opportunity to make clear to the city council and the people of Birmingham our gratitude for all their efforts and for their forbearance over any disruption the summit caused.
After last year's Denver summit, I said that we hoped to make this year's summit smaller, more focused, more businesslike and less formal than some recent summits. I am pleased to report that those objectives were achieved. Indeed, the new format has proved sufficiently successful for Germany, which is to host next year's summit, to decide to follow suit. This was clearly also the first summit for the whole G8 and I was particularly delighted that President Yeltsin was able to play a full part in our discussions.
The Asian financial crisis of the past year put economic issues firmly back at the centre of the summit agenda. It is vital that we learn the lessons for the future. We must, as far as we can, prevent a repetition and at least ensure that future warning signals can be seen by all at an earlier stage. We therefore endorsed a report from G7 Finance Ministers on strengthening the global financial system. That sets out concrete proposals for improving the transparency of the international financial system and national financial data, introducing codes of good practice with publicity for those who fall short, strengthening national financial systems to cope with global capital flows and involving the private sector more closely in resolving those crises--effectively a set of international financial standards countries can sign up to as a way of rewarding good practice. We asked our Finance Ministers to seek rapid decisions in the appropriate forums and to report back to us without delay.
We expressed our support for Japan's efforts to revitalise its economy, which will be essential for Asia's economic recovery, and welcomed the launch of monetary union.
We also discussed the wider implications of the Asia crisis, emphasising that economic reform can be soundly based only where political legitimacy exists. That requires political accountability and transparency, too. In particular, we issued a message on the urgent need for political reform in Indonesia to accompany economic change. Events since have served only to confirm that.
We unanimously condemned India's nuclear tests, urged restraint on neighbouring countries and called on both India and Pakistan to adhere unconditionally to the comprehensive test ban and non-proliferation treaties. There was grave concern at the implication of India's action for international security, and agreement that the action had reduced India's standing in the world and her ability to play a central role.
We delivered clear messages on the importance of maintaining momentum in the middle east peace process and of ensuring a real dialogue in Kosovo that would lead to concrete measures to lower tension and stop violence.
We devoted considerable time to the problems of developing countries, particularly those in Africa. We committed ourselves to reach the internationally agreed targets for reducing poverty, maintaining a substantial flow of aid and untying it wherever possible to make it more efficient. We supported the World Health Organisation "roll-back malaria" initiative, to which Britain will be contributing £60 million. The aim is to cut radically by 2010 the death rate of a disease that strikes, above all, the poor of the world.
We also devoted considerable attention to the reduction of the burden of debt on the most heavily indebted poor countries. Birmingham marks a significant step forward in the pursuit of the Government's policy of setting targets for the year 2000. In particular, the G8 countries are now signed up to the Mauritius mandate target that all eligible highly indebted poor countries are at least in the debt relief process by 2000, and to granting interim relief where necessary. Particular attention will now be given to meeting the immediate needs of poor post-conflict countries, especially those in Africa. Moreover, we all agreed to forgive aid-related debt to reforming least-developed countries--a step which Britain has already taken.
We are not, however, satisfied by those steps. I pay tribute to the Jubilee 2000 campaign and its dignified breaking-the-chain demonstration in Birmingham on Saturday. The issue is vast and complex, and it cannot be solved overnight--we have to mix our realism with our idealism. For debt relief to be effective, recipient countries must be committed to policies that ensure that the benefits reach the poor. However, I am in no doubt that we must do more.
Birmingham was notable for the extent of agreement on the environment agenda, including our common determination to make the Kyoto agreement on climate change a reality through tough domestic action, developing international trading and other mechanisms and drawing in the developing countries over time.
Also on the economic side, we discussed our national action plans to promote employability and inclusion, to help the young and long-term unemployed, to encourage entrepreneurs and to make the tax and benefit system more employment friendly while promoting lifelong learning. Here, too, there is growing consensus among the G8 countries. None of us can be content while unemployment remains so high despite our relative prosperity.
We discussed the growing threat of transnational crime as borders become more open and we all become more dependent on information technology. That requires ever closer co-operation between our Governments and law enforcement agencies, including joint law enforcement action. The G8 countries have made real progress since the Lyon summit two years ago, but we agreed new steps to make our fight against crime more effective. We endorsed a 10-point action plan on high-tech crime, and an intensification of action against money laundering and financial crime. We underlined the increasing dangers of official corruption from the proceeds of crime, the need
for further action against trafficking in human beings and the rising threat of the illegal firearms trade. A ministerial meeting in Moscow will pursue that further next year.
We welcomed the forthcoming United Nations General Assembly special session on drugs and confirmed our determination to pursue a comprehensive strategy to tackle all aspects of the drug problem--production, transport and consumption.
Finally, we discussed the huge challenge posed by the millennium bug and agreed on further action to ensure the right level of international awareness and preparedness. The United Kingdom is contributing £10 million to the World bank trust fund to help developing countries to tackle the problem.
Immediately afterwards, President Clinton, Jacques Santer and I met in London for the six-monthly EU-US summit. Our discussions focused on two key issues: resolving our long-standing differences over US sanctions on Iran, Libya and Cuba; and launching a new transatlantic trade initiative.
Negotiations on the serious problems of extra-territorial jurisdiction raised by the Helms-Burton and Iran-Libya sanctions Acts have been going on for more than a year.
The United States Administration are now committed to waivers for European Union companies under the two Acts, and will resist attempts by Congress to push through similar legislation in the future. At the same time, we reaffirmed our joint commitment to countering proliferation and terrorism. As a result, our companies can now invest with far greater predictability, and we have reinforced EU-US co-operation against unacceptable policies. That was a major step forward.
The agreements also paved the way for a major new EU-US trade initiative, the transatlantic economic partnership, to remove remaining barriers to trade across the Atlantic and provide more effective co-operation in developing the world trading system.
Yesterday, I was in Geneva for the 50th anniversary of the general agreement on tariffs and trade to make clear Britain's continued championing of the cause of free trade. We must continue to resist protectionism, not least in the wake of the Asian economic crisis. A major challenge that we face is to manage the movement towards free trade so that all can participate and benefit. Developing countries must be able to take full advantage of the opportunities, so I was pleased to announce some $10 million of technical assistance to help those countries to prepare.
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