PRESS CONFERENCE BY COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES

PRESS CONFERENCE BY COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES

Commonwealth countries will do all they can to reinvigorate the Doha process in the wake of the breakdown of trade talks in Cancún, Mexico, Commonwealth officials told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

“The very strong message that was coming through from this group of foreign ministers was ‘Get Doha back on track’”, said Commonwealth Secretary-General Donald McKinnon.  “From a wide range of ministers the very strong feeling was that a lot has been lost as a result of Cancún”, he said.

Mr. McKinnon, accompanied by Alexander Downer, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia, and Nigeria’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Oluyemi Adeniji, briefed correspondents on a meeting of Commonwealth Ministers for Foreign Affairs held this afternoon at the United Nations.

The meeting involved discussions on a wide range of global political and economic issues, including concerns about trade, security and millennium development goals.  There was a substantial discussion about the special concerns of small States regarding the challenges they faced in meeting the millennium targets, as well as the costs of adhering to new security requirements.

“The challenge of small States to meet Security Council resolution 1373 is still very profound”, said Mr. McKinnon referring to the resolution concerning anti-terrorism measures.

The ministers also discussed the deployment of regional forces in the Solomon Islands, which Mr. Downer noted had brought stability to one of the countries in the Commonwealth.

Mr. Adeniji briefed the ministers on preparations for the upcoming meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in Abuja, Nigeria, in early December. Commonwealth ministers also heard a speech by the General Assembly President Julian Robert Hunte, Foreign Minister of Saint Lucia, a Commonwealth country.

Mr. Downer said the Commonwealth applauded the news from Nigeria today that an Islamic court had cleared a woman convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.  Mr. Downer congratulated Nigeria “for ensuring that there was an appropriate human rights outcome in this difficult and contentious case”.

Asked about whether the proliferation security initiative, in which Australia and the United Kingdom are participants, was a Commonwealth agenda, Mr. Downer replied that it wasn’t discussed in the meeting today but that a number of Commonwealth members would like to see international law apply a framework which would uphold arms control conventions and reinforce the international non-proliferation regime.

“Rather than just depending on customary international law, a further Security Council resolution in relation to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction could be a very useful weapon in our armory, as an international community, against that enormous problem”, Mr. Downer said.

Responding to a question about the failure of the trade talks and the relationship between poverty and terrorism, Mr. Downer said the Commonwealth leaders -- from small, developing States to medium-sized and large, rich States -- were united in their desire to see a more liberal global trading agenda and that they wanted it to be fair.

He noted an interesting contribution from British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who argued that the Commonwealth should continue to lobby the European Union to reduce its subsidies for agricultural products.

In response to a question about whether Zimbabwe’s readmission to the Commonwealth was addressed at the meeting, Mr. Downer said the issue was not raised.  “There was no discussion about Zimbabwe at all”, he said.

“We have tried to follow the Commonwealth tradition of consensus decisions and so far consultations have not produced an invitation being extended to Zimbabwe for the moment”, added Mr. Adeniji, noting the issue would likely be raised at a Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group meeting on Saturday.

Mr. McKinnon explained that Pakistan and Zimbabwe, both suspended from the Commonwealth, had not been invited to the Abuja meeting in December.

The issue of Pakistan had been discussed on the margins of the General Assembly, Mr. Downer said, adding that Australia supported Pakistan’s readmission to the Commonwealth and hoped for a consensus on the issue at the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group meeting on Saturday.  Responsibility for a final decision on Zimbabwe’s readmission rested on Commonwealth heads of government, he added, and that this would be discussed at the Abuja meeting.

Regarding the United Nations decision to relocate its international staff, Mr. Downer said he was disappointed that the United Nations felt it should relocate its staff, though Australia understood its security concerns in the wake of the United Nations compound bombing and was deeply affected by the death of Sergio Vieira de Mello.

“It’s important that people understand that the United Nations is no more welcome, as far as Saddam Hussein’s loyalists are concerned, than the Coalition Provisional Authority”, he said.

“Amongst the hardline Baathist, there’s a lot of ill feelings towards the United Nations and, therefore, if the United Nations is to fulfil its role in Iraq, it has to consider the difficult security environment in certain parts of the country”, he added.

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