18 July 2006
Tony Blair reflected on the G8 summit in St Peterburg in a statement to MPs.
Parts of this transcript may have been edited
Read the statement
With permission, Mr Speaker, I wish to make a statement about the G8 Summit which took place on 15-17 July in St Petersburg. I pay tribute to President Putin’s chairmanship and the Russian Government’s handling of the Summit.
1. Middle East
The whole of the Summit was rightly overshadowed by the tragic and terrible events in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. For days, we have seen the innocent killed by terrorism as a deliberate act, by Hezbollah; civilians killed in the course of military retaliation by Israel, and the disintegration of our hopes for stability in this, the most fraught area of dispute in the world.
Over 1,600 rockets and mortars have fallen on Northern Israel, in an arc from Haifa to Tiberias, deliberately targeting civilians. In Lebanon, more than 230 people have been killed, the vast majority of them civilians. Houses, roads, essential infrastructure, factories and Lebanese Army facilities have been damaged. Once again we urge that account is taken of the humanitarian situation and that military action by Israel is proportionate.
We grieve for the innocent Israelis and innocent Lebanese civilians that are dead, for their families that mourn and for their countries that are caught up in the spiral of escalating confrontation.
There are over 10,000 registered British nationals in Lebanon, and probably many more, including a significant number of dual Lebanese/British nationals. We are working as hard and as quickly as we can to ensure that we are able to evacuate all those who wish to leave. Teams of consular, military and medical officials have deployed to Beirut, Cyprus and Damascus. We evacuated 63 of the most vulnerable British nationals from Beirut by air yesterday. But the safest way to evacuate large numbers of civilians is by sea.
We have six ships in the region or heading for the region - the York and the Gloucester are now offshore, and the Illustrious, Bulwark, St Albans and RFA Victoria Fort are heading there. The first evacuation by ship is taking place today, and further evacuations will follow. The advice to British nationals is to stay put and remain in contact with the British Embassy.
We should be in no doubt about the immediate cause for this situation. It started with the kidnap of an Israeli soldier in Gaza and then action by Israel, targeting Hamas on the Palestinian side. Then, without provocation, Hezbollah crossed the blue line established by UN resolutions, killed eight Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two more. Israel then again retaliated in air strikes against targets in Beirut.
This situation therefore began with acts of extremism by militant groups that were, as the G8 said unanimously, without any justification and of course were designed to provoke the very response that followed.
In the communiqué issued by the G8, we refer to and condemn the activities of the extremist groups and, more elliptically, "those that support them". For most of us at the G8, we can be less elliptical. Hezbollah is supported by Iran and Syria, by the former in weapons, weapons incidentally very similar if not identical to those used against British troops in Basra; by the latter, in many different ways and by both financially.
What is at stake therefore could not be more stark. On the one side, there is Lebanon, a remarkable democratic achievement from the days when the Lebanon was a by-word for instability and conflict. I have once again given Prime Minister Siniora my solidarity and support in the immense difficulties he now faces. There are also those in Israel and in Palestine desperate to see progress towards the only solution that will ever work there, namely two states, Israel and Palestine, both democratic, both independent, both at peace.
But on the other side are those who want no compromise, who cannot see that terrorism is not the route to a solution but a malign, fundamental obstacle to it. They persist in terrorism, knowing that its impact there is the same the world over, to divide, to create hatred, to drive out negotiation. That is their purpose.
So what can be done? I know many wanted the G8 to call for an immediate ceasefire on the part of Israel. Of course we all want all violence to stop and stop immediately. But we recognise that the only realistic way to achieve such a ceasefire is to address the underlying reasons why this violence has broken out.
In respect of Lebanon, the G8 proposed rapid work on inserting an international security presence in Southern Lebanon to stabilise the situation, ensure that the terrorism from the Lebanese side ends and provide conditions in which the Lebanese armed forces can take control and assist them in doing so.
Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoys are in the region, and will report to the Security Council later this week. We welcome these and other efforts to calm the situation.
We also encouraged dialogue between the Lebanese and Israeli Governments and we pledged at the G8 further economic support to Lebanon. And of course we demanded the return of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Only in this way can we implement UNSCRs 1559 and 1680.
In Gaza, we made clear that our goal was an immediate end to the violence, and we put forward the measures necessary:
- release of the Israeli soldiers and of the Palestinian Ministers and Parliamentarians;
- an end to attacks on Israel;
- resumption of security co-operation between Israel and Palestine;
- restarting political contacts between Israeli and Palestinian officials; and
- an end to Israeli military operations and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
But let us be very plain. We can and must stabilise the existing situation: in Lebanon and in the Gaza. We must use such stabilisation to help Lebanon rebuild and eventually to re-begin negotiations between Israel and Palestine. But at root, we need to recognise the fundamental nature of the struggle in the region, which has such far-reaching consequences far beyond that region and even in countries like our own. All over the Middle East there are those who want to modernise their nations, who believe as we do in democracy and liberty and tolerance. But ranged against them are extremists who believe the opposite, who believe in fundamentalist states and war not against Israel’s actions but against its existence. In virtually every country of the region, including on the streets of Baghdad, such a struggle is being played out.
When this current crisis abates, this is the issue to which we must return, in the way the G8 outlined in 2004 but has not so far put into effect.
2. Africa
On Africa, we made modest, but important, progress in taking forward the commitments of last year, including:
- scaling up action on HIV/AIDS through replenishing the Global Fund in 2006 and 2007;
- new initiatives on vaccines for malaria and pneunoccoceus;
- fully funding the Education Fast Track initiative.
We agreed to review progress on Africa again at the G8 Summit in 2007 .
I have asked the International Development Secretary to set out key milestones for the coming 12 months in his next report to Parliament. These will include supporting 10 African countries, developing long term education plans and getting the debts cancelled for 5 more African countries. Kofi Annan will also convene the Africa Progress Panel to monitor progress.
I also discussed Sudan with a number of G8 leaders and Kofi Annan. We agreed the situation in Darfur was unacceptable and we needed a quick deployment of the UN force.
3. WTO
On Trade, at the final session, it was at last agreed by all to empower their negotiatiors to go further. The cost of failure for the world’s poor, global growth and multilateralism would be high. Presidents Bush, Barroso, Lula and Mbeki, Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Singh all agreed to show flexibility. Pascal Lamy has been tasked immediately to convene trade negotiators to turn this clear commitment into action that delivers real cuts in agricultural tariffs, and subsidies and progress on non agricultural market access. I do not minimise the very substantial obstacles that remain but this renewed commitment from the US, the EU and the G20 was immensely welcome.
Importantly, we also agreed a strong package for poor countries including $4 billion a year aid for trade and action on rules of origin and we remain fully committed to ensuring that in any event it would be utterly wrong for there not to be a full development package for the poorest.
4. Energy
There was also a fascinating debate on energy at the Summit, of direct relevance to this country. There was a virtual consensus around the following:
- Energy prices will continue to rise with an increase of around 50 per cent in energy demand by 2030.
- Climate change is now universally accepted as happening, including by the USA and therefore there is an urgent necessity to make future economic growth sustainable.
- Countries will therefore need to have balanced energy policies in which clean coal technology, carbon sequestration, renewables and nuclear power will have to play a part. Our own energy review was therefore absolutely in line with that consensus.
On nuclear, what was interesting was the statement by China that it intends to develop nuclear power, by India that it regarded it as indispensable and by many of the main oil producers including Kazakhstan that they would also balance their reliance on their own oil and gas with nuclear. This was also the conclusion of the J8, the young people from around the world who debated the issue.
The G8 also agreed on the need to accelerate discussions on an inclusive dialogue for a post-2012 climate change framework: a framework that includes the US, China and India.
The G8 supported the need for a goal to stabilise green house gas concentrations. The Gleneagles dialogue meeting in Mexico will be the next step in taking this work forward.
Finally, we agreed a number of other texts which have been placed in the Library of the House.
This was a summit held in circumstances none of us could have foreseen. It was dominated by the Middle East. But its conclusions on Africa and on energy will, I hope, stand the test of time and I commend the Conclusions to the House.
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