14 November 2001
Prime Minister
Good morning everyone. First of all can I welcome Prime Minister Guterres here to Downing Street and say how pleased I am to see him here, and also to express my thanks to him and to Portugal for the very strong position they have taken in the international coalition against terrorism, and the immediate support that they gave, and his leadership in giving that support, were very important in building a sense of a world coming together.
I will obviously be speaking later to my own Parliament today about recent developments. I just want to say these three things very quickly.The first is in relation to the military situation. Obviously the Taliban forces are in a state of collapse. We welcome that, but it is important to realise that our objectives are not yet fulfilled. We still have to make sure that Afghanistan cannot be used to export terrorism around the world, that the Al-Qu’eda terrorist network is shut down, and that bin Laden and his associates are brought to justice.
Secondly, we have to make a particular push now on the humanitarian side. This will be very, very important indeed, because although the World Food Programme is able to get substantial amounts of food and aid into Afghanistan, we need to make sure that it is distributed to thepeople that really need it. This is a big humanitarian challenge, and we need to rise to it.
And the third thing is, obviously, the diplomatic challenge of making sure that in any post-Taliban regime in Afghanistan it is broad-based, it involves all the ethnic groupings including of course the Pushtun ethnic grouping, that we include as many people as possible in building that government for the future. Now this is work that is being led by the United Nations. It is obviously right that the United Nations take the lead in this work, but I hope that everyone in Afghanistan co-operates with that process. It is immensely important. It is the only way of offering a stable and viable future to people in Afghanistan.
So, Tony (Guterres), once again, welcome here. Many thanks for coming in again. Thank you for your support for the international coalition at this time.
Mr Guterres
I would like to say first of all how grateful I am for this opportunity to discuss with Prime Minister Tony Blair how Europe can be more effective, both in pursuing our common task of fighting terrorism and creating the conditions for terrorism not to have, in the future, the possibilities of getting the support of states like Afghanistan and going on with the actions that are now being pursued.
Making sure that at the same time, humanitarian relief is effective, and that a political solution is found for the future of Afghanistan.
Second, and I think it is very important that we take profit of the problems to change them into opportunities. I think this is a very important occasion for Europe to be more effective in conflict prevention and conflict solving in many parts of the world. Even if you don’t establish a linkage between what has happened in the recent events related to terrorism with problems existing in many parts of the world, and namely in the Middle East, I think it is obvious that it is extremely important to make sure we are effective in solving and preventing conflicts that can have an enormous impact on world public opinion and especially in the public opinion of Moslem countries that are very relevant in this international coalition against terrorism.
And third, I think this is also the time to prepare Europe to have an effective role in a post-crisis strategy in setting a global agenda of reform that will help us all to learn from the problems of today’s world, and to make the institutional changes and factions that can be required in order to make sure that trade, financial markets, labour standards, sustainable development and other issues are effectively combined together, and together with the international institutions and the different countries of the world, in order to improve the way we can help, specially the less developed areas of today’s world to solve their problems, to improve their conditions, to give their people better life conditions, better skills, better capacities to develop their societies.
I think that there is not a linkage between poverty and terrorism, but it is obvious that if we manage to have a world with more justice, that world will be less violent. And I think Europe has a key role, in promoting a global agenda of reforms and actions in this sense, and I am very glad that we will be able to work together very closely in Europe for that purpose.
[The Portuguese Prime Minister then translated his introductory statement into Portuguese.]
Question
I wonder if you could tell us what role you see for British troops who have been put on standby this morning to go to Kabul. What role exactly do you see them playing there, and whether they will be working with, or under the control of, the UN.
Prime Minister
I am afraid that at this point in time I simply can’t say any more than that we obviously are wanting to do all that we can to help in this situation, whether in terms of providing help from our armed forces or in any other way, but at the present time, if you will forgive me, I maysay a little bit more about this in Parliament later today, but at the present time I simply think it would be unwise to speculate on exactly what role they would play.
Question
What should be the role of the European Union in decisions about the future of Afghanistan and in future decisions, are you going to pay attention more to the opinions of the small countries concerned these matters.
Prime Minister
Well, first of all, I certainly believe that Europe collectively must play a role in helping the reconstruction of Afghanistan and then also, obviously under the auspices of the United Nations, making sure that the government in Afghanistan is as broad-based as possible. And in relation to the work of all the different countries inside the European Union, I should say to you that the discussions that we have had this morning we have found very great common ground between Britain and Portugal in how we take forward the type of global agenda that Tony Guterres was just talking about.
In fact we have agreed, I think I can say this to put some of our close colleagues together, in order to try and work together on how we develop that agenda, because this is an enormous opportunity for Europe to work together at this time, and certainly we intend that Europe should play its full part in that, and we will help in any way that we can. And I should say to you that the relations between Britain and Portugal go back a very long way, and wecertainly consider Portugal a strong ally of Great Britain. Always have done, and always will do.
Question
… in Portugal about first when the visit of the Portuguese President was postponed, and secondly why Portugal wasn’t invited in coming to the mini-summit here in Downing Street. Are the relations between Portugal and Britain now patched up, or not?
Prime Minister
Well I don’t think they really require that, and I think that the fact that we have had this meeting here today shows the strength of that relationship, if indeed there wasn’t other very good evidence of it. And we have worked very, very closely together over a long period oftime as colleagues and friends, quite apart from our two countries, and I should say to you in relation to the visit of the President, that was because I had to go abroad at the time, and although I could have seen the President for a short period of time, we both agreed that it was better that we saw each other for a longer, and more extended, visit. And I think that should show the degree of respect we show Portugal, rather than otherwise.
Question
How many troops will Britain be sending, and how quickly will they be deployed.
Prime Minister
I simply can’t speculate on that at the moment. As I say, I may be able to say a few more words about this in Parliament later today, but I think at the moment all I can to say to you is obviously we have troops on standby. We have been heavily involved in what has happened sofar. We will play any role we possibly can, but that is something we need to discuss, first with close allies and obviously with the United Nations and others. So, if you will forgive me at the moment, I think it would just be unwise for me to speculate.
Mr Guterres
I was just saying that there is no problem about the past. My view has always been that Europe should work together and should work together effectively, especially with the difficult challenges that we have to face.
Prime Minister
And I can tell you that there is no-one else better qualified than Prime Minister Guterres to play that role in the rest of Europe. As I say, we have worked together for a long period of time, and I remember when the Lisbon Economic Reform Summit was being put together, which really started the whole process of economic reform as a key agenda item in Europe, the way that the Portuguese Presidency handled that was I think an example for us Europeans.
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