David Miliband

Diplomatic Blogging

The New America Foundation hosted a webcast for new and old media in Washington. The brickbats between new bloggers and "old" media (George Stephanopoulos of ABC) were a bit tougher than the foreign policy debate. But the depth and range of think tank expertise and commentary on foreign policy was remarkable.

The new media brings speed and dialogue. It does not replace traditional diplomacy. But we are only in the foothills of exploring its power.

Posted at 18:01 13 May 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[1]

Basra Corniche on a Friday afternoon

If you had told me in December 07 when I spent a morning at Basra air base, and couldn't go off base, that 14 months later I would be chatting with Basrawis out with friends and family on the Corniche by the Shatt Al Arab waterway I would not have believed you. Not everyone goes for a walk with an armed escort but the Basrawis told me the same thing one after another: Basra security has been changed fundamentally, the big issue now is unemployment, the future is about Basra being a great city again. Iraqi leadership has been key but so has British military and civilian support. Police chief Adel has been given huge support from a UK police team. He spoke with pride about his force. Clean and efficient police are the difference between a city which functions and one which doesn't.

Posted at 22:09 27 February 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[1]

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]

European Action1: Zimbabwe

European Foreign Ministers agreed sanctions on travel and finance relating to key members of the Mugabe regime in Brussels this week.  This is intended to make clear continued international determination to balance up the competing forces in Zimbabwe – an opposition which won the parliamentary and presidential elections and a government that has turned on its own people.  In the light of the welcome news of a negotiating process being established in Harare, the need for clear pressure on the regime is increased.  We all want the negotiations to succeed, but no one believes they will unless there is real pressure on the government to recognise the will of the people.

Posted at 16:10 23 July 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[2]

Cool Biz

Former Prime Minister Koizumi apparently issued a diktat that government buildings should be no cooler than 28 degrees - that explains the very informal unbuttoned shirts at the G8 foreign ministers meeting.  Very comfortable it was too.  I gather it is not true that some zealous Japanese civil servants insisted that the former PM meant no more or less than 28 degrees - prompting a rash of central heating on cooler summer days.

Posted at 17:16 27 June 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[2]

1000 years since the Genji

It's over 20 years since I was in Kyoto as part of a summer student programme. This is Japan's historic capital (until 1868) and was the home of the Genji Dynasty (1000 years ago).  36 hours here for the G8 Foreign Ministers' involves fleeting glimpses of the city and of Japanese life: a tea ceremony (ever heard of whisked green tea?), extreme courtesy and welcome to Westerners, no chances taken on policing the motorcade, and a city encircled by strikingly green woods.

Posted at 15:28 27 June 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[1]

All eyes on Luxembourg

EU Foreign Ministers meet in Luxembourg today. There is one unplanned item on the agenda – the rejection by Irish voters of the Lisbon reform Treaty.  We will do our business from Kosovo to Zimbabwe but all eyes and ears will be trained on the next steps on the Treaty. It’s not pretty but it is necessary for the EU to give Ireland first of all time to take stock of how they want to respond to the no vote and what they want to do with their ratification process.  Instant answers are not usually thoughtful answers in this area. It is clear that if the Irish do not ratify the Treaty then the Treaty will not pass into law.

 I don’t understand the argument that the Irish vote means we should abandon our ratification. We need a view. The Irish have said they think we should carry on. I spoke on Saturday to foreign ministers from Sweden, Spain and Holland, all of whom are part way through their ratification process, and all of whom plan to proceed with ratification. Last Wednesday’s debate in the House of Lords included powerful speeches from Lord Howe, Lord Brittan and Lord Patten  about the virtues of parliamentary accountability except in unusual cases of major constitutional change. 

I have not detected a great drive either to exclude the Irish or to enter a new institutional negotiation or to revive an ‘inner core’ of European countries. In fact I have detected a great sucking of teeth; there really was not a plan B in a cupboard. I explored this on the Marr Programme yesterday

Posted at 10:49 16 June 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[16]

Cluster munitions

It was nice to be able to join Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Store in person in Oslo on 29 May to congratulate him on his initiative that eventually brought together 109 countries in Dublin to agree a treaty banning cluster munitions. As he said at our press conference on 30 May it sets a new "norm" for the world - and should do so. The United Kingdom has always argued it would sign a good treaty and the detailed work on definitions and interoperability issues made the difference over the last week. Like the anti-personnel mine ban convention of 1997 this treaty should set a new global standard.

Posted at 10:38 02 June 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[7]

Hope in Iraq

This is the theme of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's speech to the first international compact review conference on Iraq. All Iraq's economic and political partners are here. The progress on security - from 1500 attacks a week to less than 300 - is striking, as is economic growth (including oil production). But the problems are still immense and that makes the next year of the compact key.

I used my meeting with Foreign Minister Zebari to reflect on the need for continued cooperation on the issue of the five British hostages taken in Baghdad. Today marks the first anniversary of their seizure. They and their families have suffered terribly as their testimony today shows. We have not forgotten them.

Posted at 17:44 29 May 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]

"Badge of courage"

Silicon valley brings together money, ideas and people in a way that typifies but generally beats successful economic conurbations around the world. I am visiting with Secretary of State Rice to understand the economic and social dynamic in this leading part of the US (and the world - it would be the 4th largest economy if it were a country) and in part to get a sense of the foreign policy conversation beyond the east coast.

It was surprising but I suppose obvious to be told that it is the attitude to failure not success that is key.  "Badge of courage" as a CEO said to me. Smart.

Posted at 16:33 23 May 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[1]

I went to a match and diplomacy broke out

Arsenal-Sunderland on the last day of the season was meant to be the premiership decider. It didn't quite work out that way....but the Irish connection at Sunderland brought the new Irish Foreign Minisiter to the north east. So Anglo-Irish talks featured in the board room for the first time.

Posted at 12:25 12 May 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[0]

Chelsea-Manchester United

I was glad to be able to open my bilateral meeting on Thursday night with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov by telling him that Zetin St Petersburg were beating Bayern Munich and therefore their fans would be on the way to Manchester. I raised the visa preparations for Chelsea and Man U fans for the Champions League final in Moscow. He was fully on top of the arrangements, committed to contributing to a great final, and confident the administrative arrangements would work.

Posted at 20:53 04 May 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[4]

World Without West

Thanks to Steve Clemons for his thoughtful comments on my meeting with the Young Atlanticists in Bucharest. He is right that promulgating the idea of responsible sovereignty begs a lot of questions – but I don’t agree that “responsibility” does not translate into a non-western way of thinking. If anything it is one of those words that can get used for all sorts of purposes – but I think it is a useful word in bridging divides, because once you start debating what it actually means you are bought into the idea that it is legitimate and right to establish boundaries on action (at least moral boundaries and hopefully more).

I am thinking of returning to this theme, or at least a related matter that Clemons covers, in a speech to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington later this month: my recent visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan and the unique concurrence of complemetary government strategies on each side of the Durand Line make me want to look again at what we can learn about the spread and role of democratic governance from the experience of those two countries.

My former colleague Chris Smith (now Lord Smith of Finsbury) sent me his book The Suicide of the West but I am afraid I have not been able to read it. I am sceptical about a declinist school – but what is clear (see my blog Foreign Office goes to China) is that the West does face fundamental choices about how it thinks about rising powers.

Posted at 10:42 01 May 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]