David Miliband

EU-China

The visit of Premier Wen to Brussels, before his trip to London, involved an announcement of renewed EU/China cooperation.  In the talks over the last 3 days in London the EU was a significant presence – as a trade block and partner above all, and an institution where the Chinese want Britain to have a strong view.  The two PM’s announced a new drive in bilateral trade and inter cooperation, for example on climate change; but this goes side by side with stronger European ties, not at the expense of them.

Posted at 10:58 03 February 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[5]

Cyprus

I met Alexander Downer, former Australian foreign minister and now Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on  Cyprus.  This is a key year for the Cyprus problem.  Both leaders have said to me they are committed to finding a way through.   They have an experienced supporter in Downer, to help them through the process.  Britain is determined to back all sides in making the decisions necessary for a settlement, supporting a bizonal and bicommunal federation, but we will not advance our own plan.  We want to support not initiate.  What we know is that it is in the interests of the people of the island, never mind wider geopolitical issues to do with Nato/EU relations, for the problem to be settled once and for all.

Posted at 17:58 21 January 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[5]

Carbon capture and storage

One of the last but most important questions to be resolved in the climate and energy deal just agreed at the European Council was how to finance the demonstration of carbon capture and storage (CCS), the technologies that remove carbon emissions from fossil power plants and bury them indefinitely in geological reservoirs underground. In the event we managed to secure a package that will fund the construction of the 10 or so plants we will need in order to discover if we can make CCS work safely and affordably at scale. This fulfils the commitment European leaders made at their Summit last spring.

This is a breakthrough agreement. Coal is a reality. China has in recent years been building 2 new coal plants a week. The US and Germany get 50% of their electricity from coal. Unless we can find a way of ensuring that the coal that is inevitably going to be burned is emission free, there will be no chance of avoiding dangerous climate change.

Today's deal in effect establishes one of the most transformational technology partnerships ever seen. It brings us a big step closer to establishing the zero emission power systems we urgently need, not only in the EU but also in the US, China and elsewhere. It will help those in the US Congress like Senator Kerry who have been pressing for a similar package to change the game on coal in the US. It thereby puts in place a critical precondition for the agreement we need to reach at Copenhagen next year on a new international framework for climate change. That will now take centre stage.  

Posted at 10:48 15 December 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[4]

Piracy in Somalia

Yesterday marked the launch of the European Union's naval mission to tackle piracy in the Gulf of Aden and along the Somali Coast, under British command.  It is a hugely tough job, inextricably linked to the ground situation in Somalia, but vital for global trade and security.  The mission's key roles are to protect World Food Programme humanitarian deliveries to Somalia, protecting  other vulnerable shipping and deterring and disrupting piracy more widely.  The mission, called Operation "Atalanta",  also includes airborne surveillance in known piracy high risk areas.  Warships and patrol aircraft from  eight  nations including the UK  are so far committed to participate in "Atalanta", and the EU has made clear it would welcome participation by non-EU member states too, in recognition that this is a shared international problem and responsibility.   It is a good example of the EU bringing together the resources of member states to good effect.

Posted at 17:55 09 December 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[4]

From Bucharest to Brussels

I am writing this at NATO headquarters where foreign ministers are debating NATO-Russia relations as well as Afghanistan and other issues. The invasion of Georgia is raw. That rawness affects the important discussion of how the NATO aspirations of Ukraine and Georgia are taken forward.

NATO makes a speciality of the 'narcissism of small differences' as I said in my contribution this afternoon. But the differences over tactics should not obscure unanimity that NATO needs to support the capacity-building needs of potential members. Nor that there is agreement across NATO that hard headed engagement with Russia is necessary. But as one of the ministers said, "engagement is an activity not a policy". The engagement is for a purpose - and that purpose must be stability in the relations between Russia and countries on its border (and the EU).

NATO membership is a long-term prospect by any stretch; NATO's membership criteria are standards-based and those standards will be upheld. But it is right to implement the conclusions agreed by heads at Bucharest in April. That is what we are doing.

Posted at 12:29 03 December 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[0]

EU and US: focussing on working together

Despite the impression given by some press reports this morning, EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Marseilles agreed our own priorities for joint work with a new US administration, including Middle East Peace Process and Afghanistan/Pakistan. Not a shopping list of asks, still less demands. The focus is on how the transatlantic alliance can work together. And that means Europe living up to its responsibilities. And we have not written an open letter.

Posted at 10:00 04 November 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[4]

Balkans

When Paddy Ashdown and Richard Holbrooke sound the alarm about the situation in the Balkans it makes sense to listen. They are right. As the Czech Foreign Minister and I said over the summer, the first task is to pay attention to Bosnia and support the High Rep. We do not support an early wind up at the OHR; we do want it to complete its job and the EU to fulfil its responsibilities.

Posted at 11:56 29 October 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[2]

"For a small country Europe is heaven"

This comment by a leading Slovenian politician on the first day of the Queen's State Visit brought me up short. And then I thought about the history. Slovenia was always the richest and most westernised part of former Yugoslavia. Today it is a member of the EU and NATO, the first accession country to hold the EU's rotating presidency (earlier this year), a country confident in its nationhood and also in its internationalism.

The security of the EU is heaven if your history over centuries is of empires coming and going, domination from Vienna or later Belgrade being a permanent preoccupation - and that is the Slovene experience. Tito held Yugoslavia together but the rotating republic after 1980 satisfied no one. Slovenia escaped the worst of the 1990s break up but there is a clear sense that 2008 - EU presidency, HM Queen visit - marks what a senior diplomat calls "maturity ... deciding things for ourselves rather than following others' rules".  It's been a worthwhile visit.

Posted at 12:36 23 October 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]

Buyers' Remorse

The European Council will be remembered for the confidence of the European proposals for global financial regulation. We are not going to argue about where credit belongs for their creation: suffice to say they are ideas with which we are more than comfortable.

But the Council has set the scene for a very serious discussion between now and December about how the EU is to meet the ambitious climate change goals that were agreed in March 2007. There is no question that some of those who have doubts about the climate change agenda, or still don't believe in the economics of climate change after Nicholas Stern's report, are getting buyers' remorse about the March 2007 deal. But what is their argument?

Surely not that we can avoid making decisions in December. By then a new US President will be giving indications of how he plans to handle this issue. We cannot end up in a situation where Europe does not have a climate change position and America does. Nor that we should revisit the targets (no one actually suggested this at this Council).

Nor, on the other side, that there does not need to be proper recognition in the final package of the particular situations of different countries or the need for cost effectiveness in the way the climate agenda is pursued.

In the event this was early sparring. But stick to the targets and it doesn't matter that much how they are hit - more energy efficiency, more renewables, more nuclear, they all count towards a low carbon agenda.

Posted at 17:18 16 October 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]

Kosovo - Portugal makes its move

Portuguese foreign minister Luis Amado on Tuesday made Portugal the 22nd EU Member State to recognise Kosovo.  He did so because of the growing sense that the declaration of independence, and more important the recognition of it by 47 countries, represents a sustainable 'fact on the ground'.  The move was important on the day before Serbia invited the International Court of Justice to look at the declaration of independence.  We are confident that the declaration, rooted in UN Security Council Resolution 1244, is legal in international law, and represents the fairest and most secure route to ending the 15 year tragedy of the western Balkans.

Posted at 10:58 09 October 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[8]

President Yushchenko

Following up my visit to Kiev in August President Yuschenko of Ukraine called on the Prime Minister and me in London yesterday.  He heads a strategically vital country with rich history and a conspicuous commitment to engagement with western institutions, notably the EU on which there is cross party consensus in Ukraine.  Talks yesterday focussed on political stability within Ukraine, the need to nip in the bud tension over Crimea, and how to build on the 9 September EU-Ukraine accession agreement.  In addition to the global economic crisis, we also discussed follow up to the April Bucharest NATO declaration and the work of the NATO-Ukraine commission, which promote joint work with Ukrainian armed forces (who are major contributors to NATO's overseas missions).  It remains the commitment of the UK to support the people of the Ukraine in making their own decisions about their future, on national and international issues.

Posted at 11:32 07 October 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[2]

Cyprus: Don't speak too soon but...

Congratulations to President Christofias and the Turkish Cypriot Leader Mr Talat on the announcement of fully fledged negotiations to resolve the 'Cyprus problem' with UN support.  Both leaders are committed to reunification on a bizonal, bi-communal, federal basis. 
 
Britain's Cypriot community will be watching carefully - it is notably not divided between Turkish and Greek Cypriots, or at least certainly not in the parts of London like Camden and Haringey where there are substantial Cypriot communities.  But this actually matters to all of us.  Agreement would strengthen stability in an important region; unblock various aspects of NATO and EU cooperation; remove a roadblock to Turkish engagement with the EU. And on and on.
 
We are supportive but not prescriptive about the outcome.  This is the best chance for a long time to get things sorted.

Posted at 18:06 04 September 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]

The Doha Round is About More than Trade

Once again the world's trade negotiators are trying for a decisive breakthrough.  "Last chance" meetings have come and gone. It is not easy to be optimistic after seven years of negotiation. No multilateral trade negotiation has ever failed.  Many commentators now suggest that Doha will be the first.
 
The cost of failure would be huge.  New trade from the deal would be worth tens - even hundreds - of billions of Euros annually. A shot in the arm the global economy desperately needs.  At a time of global economic uncertainty Doha would lock in new economic opportunities around the world, for developed and developing countries alike.

If Doha fails these benefits will be lost.  But the effects will go wider. 

Doha is the first world-wide negotiation to reflect the new global economic order.  Brazil, India, China and other emerging economies are equal players in the WTO, as central to its success as the EU, US and Japan.    It is right, therefore, as Peter Mandelson has done, to demand that they make a fair, proportionate contribution to a world system from which they greatly benefit.

If Doha slips away,  a unique opportunity to strengthen the multilateral, rules-based system will be lost - that  would be a big knock to international confidence.  If we cannot reach a trade agreement after seven years, can we really expect to succeed next year on a truly global successor to Kyoto?  How will we generate a global commitment needed to shift to low carbon growth? 

We need international institutions that accommodate the shifts of power and influence in the world and can deal more effectively with both familiar and new challenges.  We still need to manage international disputes and resolve conflicts.  But we also need collectively to address climate change, global economic shocks, food and energy insecurity and terrorism. The old institutions, created in the aftermath of the second world war,  are insufficiently geared to   meet these challenges.  India, China, Brazil and others must take a proportionate but bigger share of responsibility for world problems in return for a bigger say in world institutions. In the WTO they already have that bigger say. So Doha is, therefore, a test case.   It if fails, sceptics will see little chance of improving the UN's ability to respond to post conflict situations. Or reforming the IMF to give better early warning of global economic shocks. Or turning the World Bank into a bank for the environment as well as development. 

The EU should lead by example.  We should negotiate hard for our interests, but with an eye on the bigger picture. Our grand-children will not blame us for making the small concessions needed to achieve a trade deal.  They will blame us, and rightly, if we miss the opportunity in the Doha Round to build a platform for managing the complicated and uncertain world they will inherit.

Posted at 10:15 24 July 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[5]

Kosovo: Independent, Safer, Stronger

This week marks a critical  point in the move to normalisation in Kosovo. June 15 marked the end of the 120 day period after the declaration of independence by the new country of Kosovo.  It also marks the drive by the UN Secretary General to fulfil  the mandate of Resolution 1244  and deliver a political settlement. This now takes practical form in the reconfiguraiton of the UN mission and the deployment of  an EU Mission -  the biggest and most complex EU mission yet. But a mission so far proceeding in conditions of calm. The fact that Kosovo is not in the news is itself a great success.

Posted at 09:58 26 June 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[2]

Engagement with Cuba

I have sat through a discussion in Brussels about next steps on engagement with Cuba. The number of political prisoners (229 in June 2008) and prisoners of conscience (62 according to Amnesty) are a stain on the reputation of the country. But there is consensus in the EU that renewed engagement with the new government is worthwhile. I support that. And there are tentative signs of opening up.

But the discussion was striking for the experience around the table of living with dictatorial regimes: not just in Eastern Europe where the memory is recent, but in Spain and Portugal and Greece. The discussion was not romantic or rose tinted: human rights abuse casts a long shadow. 

The EU will review its process of engagement in a year's time to check on progress before taking it further forward.

Posted at 10:38 20 June 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[2]