TRANSCRIPT: PICKERING AND EIZENSTAT ON G-8 MEETINGS
(Environment key issue for foreign ministers)
Washington -- Environmental issues will take center stage at the May 8-9 meeting of the foreign ministers of the Group of Eight (G-8) countries in London, according to Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Stuart Eizenstat and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Pickering.
The foreign ministers meeting and a concurrent finance ministers meeting precede the Birmingham G-8 Summit of the leaders of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada and Russia May 15-17.
Eizenstat and Pickering briefed reporters in London May 8 prior to the meetings. A transcript of the briefing was made available in Washington.
Eizenstat said that environmental issues will be the first topic discussed by the foreign ministers and, if the draft communique is adopted, will be the focus of the first 11 paragraphs of the final document -- covering issues like forests, oceans, fresh water, climate change, desertification.
The ministers also will focus on the broad issue of development, non-proliferation, counter-terrorism, events in the Korean peninsula, and the situation in Kosovo, Pickering said.
Following is the transcript:
(begin transcript)
U.S. Department of State
Office of the Spokesman
(London, UK)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 8, 1998
BRIEFING BY UNDER SECRETARIES OF STATE TOM PICKERING AND STUART EIZENSTAT London, United Kingdom May 8, 1998
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: I would like, at least, to do a very quick bit of how did we get here. For many years, the world's leading industrial economies have met in an annual heads of government summit. Those summit meetings have usually been accompanied by meetings of foreign ministers and finance ministers meeting both separately and then sometimes jointly, and then accompanying the head. This year, the British, who are chairman of the G-8, the group, have decided that they would like to have the heads meeting separated by a week in time, from the foreign ministers and the finance ministers, in order to give the heads more time by themselves in an informal environment. You, if you want to pursue their particular ideas, ought to pursue them with the British. Each chairman has some say about how it's done.
The foreign and finance ministers' meetings are focused on a broad series of issues that one could say represent at least some summation of the current crises questions, both in the economic and financial worlds, and, increasingly, in the political world and now in sort of the area where they overlap. Stuart and I are, in a sense, covering in our own area -- Stuart on the economic side and I on the political side. This set of meetings is an opportunity, obviously, for the ministers this weekend to signal severally, foreign ministers and finance ministers, separately and jointly through a communique, but more importantly through their own discussions of where the consensus is on how to deal with this particular set of issues, both from the point of view of assessment and evaluation. But often with recommendations, thoughts and ideas for how the eight will move ahead in the future. Sometimes they set up working groups, sometimes they provide advice to themselves, other times they provide advice to the world community.
In London this weekend and in Birmingham, we're clearly going to stress our intent to build on and sustain the process of globalization to ensure that this process of globalization, benefits of which are going to be spread more widely, and they'll be a real focus on quality-of-life issues everywhere. As Stu will make clear in a minute, the U.S. will be providing its views on climate change, nuclear safely, environmental guidelines for export credit agencies, United Nations reform and development as a broad issue but also with a focus on some of the key under-developed areas including Africa, where the president has just been, and to review progress in dealing with regional conflicts.
The foreign ministers and the heads will give special attention to the situation in Kosovo, and there is a chance as well that they will be looking at the question of non-proliferation, which I know many of you have been following and which has been a key issue. Other regional and global topics that the ministers are addressing include: counter-terrorism; democracy and human rights; in the regional context Cyprus, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Cambodia, events from the Korean peninsula, and, of course, the Middle East peace process. That gives you just a brief outline. The idea obviously is, in a short period of time, there are limits on what the ministers can develop and recommend. A number of us have been spending several months preparing for this. The key outcome is a communique and press conferences, which you'll obviously have opportunities to see and study. Stu and I would be glad to entertain questions on particular issues to try to give you, at least, a feeling for where we see the sense of consensus developing and how we see the ministers moving.
UNDER SECRETARY EIZENSTAT: I would just like to add a brief opening comment and that is on the more economic side. The theme that I think comes through on the foreign ministers and finance ministers meeting is the issue of sustainable growth and development. It's a recognition that the industrial democracies are increasingly concerned, during this era of globalization, with the impacts on other countries that are less developed and on those people who may be left behind because of a lack of skills.
One of the things that struck me, having gone through many, many sessions drafting the foreign ministers' conclusions, is the extent to which the environment, for the first time, has really taken a front and center position as a major foreign policy issue. A very significant percentage of the foreign ministers' conclusions are focused on the environment; forests, oceans, fresh water, climate change, the global environmental facility, desertification, all take up very large percentages of the amount of time we've been taking and the draft conclusions, and I think it emphasizes, also, the fact that certainly our foreign policy is increasingly taking these issues into account.
Second, is the nature of development. I think, here again, there is a different emphasis, and this to some extent overlaps on the finance ministers' meeting, but it is in the draft conclusions of the foreign and finance ministers that will be discussed later. That is, as we're concerned with development in the developing countries, the issue is how do you help poor countries integrate themselves into the world economy in this globalized Europe.
There is, in fact, the traditional emphasis on bilateral and multilateral assistance, but with two real differences of approach: first, to try to emphasize as much as possible providing increased shares of assistance to those developing countries that are pursuing effective strategies of good governance and of poverty reduction and their own reforms. And the good governance means political and economic governments, a recognition that good governance is important, not just from a political sense, but from an economic sense as well, and that as our Africa initiative, the President's Africa initiative tends to emphasize additional benefits to countries which are, in fact, pursuing reforms, so, too, the G-8 are suggesting the same. The second emphasis I think is, if not dramatically new, at least more emphasized, is the importance of private capital flows as opposed to simply governmental assistance. Private capital flows overwhelm the amount of bilateral or even multilateral traditional development assistance, and those countries that are pursuing internal reforms are the ones most likely to attract the kinds of private capital flows that are the surest way to create long-term jobs and good health -- and that emphasis comes through very, very strongly in the joint group.
The third and last issue which I'd like to mention briefly is that there is a very strong emphasis in the foreign ministers' communique and conclusions on nuclear safety: the importance of all parties pursuing their commitments under the Moscow summit, creating the nuclear liability regimes, making sure that we have enough money to implement the CIP program for the sarcophagus at Chernobyl, in assuring that all of the G-8 countries assume their obligations to improve nuclear safety.
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: Just perhaps one more point, because I think that it's self evident in the fact that Stu and I are both here preparing for both separate and joint meetings and the joint meetings, I think, increasingly stress the inter-relationship of economic and political factors; and one only has to look, for example, at the Asian financial crisis to see how closely interwoven this set of issues is and one of the focal points, obviously, of these meeting and the heads' meetings will be to look at that particular problem. But I'd just like to pick up a point that Stu made, the inter-relationship of issues such as good governance, openness, transparency both in the economic and the political area, I think, are, increasingly, lessons that one can draw from the Asia financial crisis and I think, increasingly, lessons one can apply to dealing with the results of that crisis. I think that has been the beginnings, at least, of a broad consensus around the table among the eight on those particular points.
Q: On North Korea and nuclear proliferation, the North Korean Foreign Ministry made very threatening (inaudible) this morning, threatening to pull out of the (inaudible).
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: The first discussion I can't report to you on because it's taking place as we speak. The second discussion is that this is an issue that has come up frequently in our discussions with Japanese as well as -- not to pick on the Japanese -- a large number of other countries including the European Union and the Presidency. We have conveyed our concern that the agreed framework, which was worked out four years ago, is an extremely important document because, clearly, it provides a way ahead, if I could phrase it that way, for non-proliferation in the area of North Korea, something we've all been concerned about. We, on our side, have undertaken and have been working very, very strenuously to provide, before the light water reactor can be built, continued supplies of heavy fuel. Not only has the United States become a funder of this, but the United States has also undertaken to seek funding from other countries to contribute to this particular process, and we will be, very shortly, making a new delivery of heavy fuel oil to North Korea. But we think that the ongoing process, both the commitment to the light water reactor and the commitment to heavy fuel oil, and we are clearly trying to engage other governments in a continuing process to do that, are very important to provide for the integrity of the framework agreement and the concern that we have, obviously, about the North Korean statement is that anything that would happen to undermine the integrity of that agreement, either from the North Korean side or from the outside, would be in our view lamentable and regrettable.
Q: (inaudible)
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: We have continued to do so. This is not a fund-raising meeting, per se, but it provides opportunities for contexts among ministers on a bilateral basis and among senior officials to continue to be able to do that.
Q: (inaudible)
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: It takes a while, obviously, even for countries to deliver checks, if I can phrase it that way. So, I would only say that we haven't got any checks yet, although this is an old issue and we have gotten checks in the past and we have continued commitments, for example, on the part of the European Union. They are a regular contributor. Our interest is, obviously, to get both regular contributors and new-to-market contributors to increase their contributions to deal with this problem.
Q: (inaudible) -
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: I don't think any of us are especially equipped to be predictors of Mr. Milosevic or his patterns of behavior or what he will do at any particular time. What we are concerned about is what the Contact Group, when they met at Rome last week is concerned about: the process that has been put in train by the work of the Contact Group of bringing the sides together in former Yugoslavia to find a solution through dialogue. The Contact Group very carefully set out its view of the parameters for that as something that moves ahead. The United States will continue at these meetings, both at the level of G-8 and in its bilateral context to pursue those objectives, which were set out in the communique. This includes the question, which is very important, of further institution of sanctions if Belgrade is not prepared to meet the Contact Group's expectations for its set out in the Rome communique.
Q: (inaudible)
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: Let me talk about bifurcation. Perhaps Stu might talk, because the bulk of the issues that the heads will be talking about are in Stu's area, and then Jamie may want to comment. On the bifurcation, I think that the United States has kept a very open mind on the utility of this and its effectiveness. To some extent it has helped by bringing some issues to conclusion that will not go to the heads' level, at the foreign ministers' and finance ministers' level, and allow them to produce a separate communique, and it has reserved for the heads a series of very important but very discreet issues which, in a sense, is an effort to relate the time that they can give to the seriousness of the question and not have them either pretend to discuss a grab bag of issues that they haven't discussed but their ministers have discussed. And, alternatively, to allow them, in effect, to try to reflect in their own communique the depth and the seriousness of the attention they give to these issues and, I would think, some of the flavor of their discussion. Even though those communiques get prepared in advance, they are obviously subject to adjustment.
UNDER SECRETARY EIZENSTAT: I take life as it comes, and we were told this is the way we should do it so that's the way we're doing it. I think that the issues which are likely to go to the heads will be issues, like climate change, which have taken on such an important dimension. Even though they will be discussed here, it won't be in a communique. The reason it won't be in a communique is because it was to be dealt with at the heads level. But, in the process of preparing for this meeting and the heads, you had the same people doing the preparation so the winnowing out of issues, the narrowing down of language, will help the heads have a more focused discussion. Crime is an issue that will be dealt with at the heads' level, which is basically not being dealt with at the ministerial level. And there are a number of other issues that could go to the heads, it's still open. For example, if we can't resolve the (inaudible) issue, it's possible that could go to the heads. But a lot of other issues, like oceans and freshwater and so forth, won't. The issue of nuclear safety is likely to go to the heads if there is not a satisfactory resolution of it here, particularly in terms of Russian assurances about nuclear safety. So, we won't know until the end of this weekend how much of a winnowing process will occur. We're obviously going to try to deal with as many issues here as we can, but it was understood at the beginning that issues like crime and development and climate change were going to go to the heads.
UNDER SECRETARY EIZENSTAT: We understand Prime Minister Blair's desire to have the heads of state in a much more informal situation without even their ministers around. We understand the value of that. I think if we got frequent flier miles, there would be an advantage to coming back to the same town, the same place, twice in a week. We don't get them.
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: The only other thing I would say is, invitation is the highest form of flattery. You'll see whether others will take this style or try to create a new one in years to come.
Q: Not to get too much into this, details of this, but, for example, will the two of you, will you not be in Birmingham. Is that right?
UNDER SECRETARY EIZENSTAT: I will be.
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: Stuart will be.
Q: (Inaudible) why the environment is playing such an important role in (inaudible)
UNDER SECRETARY EIZENSTAT: I would think that we have certainly taken a very leading role in pushing the environment to the front. We have, for example, tried to champion an issue which is quite contentious here, and I'm not sure we will be as successful as we would like, and that is the incorporation of environmental standards into the lending practices of official credit agencies in all of our countries. This was something that was referenced at the OECD, but there has been precious little progress on it and we would like to give it a greater emphasis.
But I don't want to suggest that we're the only ones that have taken this lead. I think, Tyler, that there really is a growing recognition that, in the process of rapid globalization and rapid growth that, if we're not careful, it will come at the expense of the only planet that we all share and that, therefore, we have to build in the concept that, for growth to occur, it needs to be sustainable.
And this really, also, gets back to the climate change issue. Many of the developing countries take, we think, an incorrect view of climate change as something that will limit their growth. Quite the contrary. The kinds of Kyoto obligations, recognizing that they need to be taken according to the stage and status of development, are good for developing countries and developed countries because they will lead to more sustainable growth. So I think it's a recognition that, in the pell-mell of globalization, with tremendous capital flows, tremendous competitive pressures, that it is increasingly important to protect the environment. And that is not simply a protection that individual countries are responsible for, but this is a transnational problem. You can't control problems like ocean-dumping and freshwater just within the boundaries of one country. You need conventions and international cooperation. A substantial amount, now, of the new conventions and protocols that are being passed are, in fact, in the environmental area. I also think perhaps that the end of the Cold War, where we've been able to focus our energies on things other than the east-west division, has freed up our energies and attentions to look at things that were otherwise being pushed, perhaps, to the back burner.
UNDER SECRETARY EIZENSTAT: There are eleven paragraphs, and the first eleven paragraphs and the draft conclusions, which may become the final conclusions, are the foreign ministers on environment. Environment is the first issue that will be discussed at the working session this afternoon, and it is one of the few issues on which there were contests to see who would take the lead. The UK presidency had initially deferred to one of its EU brethren, Germany, and the Secretary (of State), as Jamie indicated, because she has such a passion for this issue and believes that it needs to be not just an extraneous issue but really incorporated into our daily diplomacy, we insisted that we have a co-lead, which we do. It is really, in fact, a new development in foreign policy.
Q: Just to return to Kosovo, do you have any thoughts on the possibility that Mr. Milosevic -- I know you can't predict what he's going to do -- but what his reaction will be on the possibility of Mr. Gonzales being an international peace (inaudible).
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: We are extremely supportive of Mr. Gonzalez and the role that he might play in the OSCE. There had been some indications that he would be, and we hope that this is true, acceptable as an international personage involved in the negotiating process. We're extremely interested in seeing the return of the OSCE long-term missions that were present in the former Yugoslavia. They perform a very, very important role of observation and monitoring and assurance for the people in the region. And, so, there is a natural relationship, if I can put it that way, between the OSCE and this very, very important role and we hope, obviously, that the statement of the Contact Group in support of Mr. Gonzales in this mission, among others things, will be responded positively to by Mr. Milosevic fairly quickly. We had asked that he respond by tomorrow on these particular questions, and that is an important date in the communique with respect to actions that will be taken by the Contact Group partners on further sanctions.
Q: Is there a possibility that all the Contact Group members are here, that there is no response by tomorrow that before this meeting breaks up that sanctions would be (inaudible)?
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: The members have committed themselves to do that. I think it would be too early for me to predict what action they will take. They will have to meet and discuss it. It's certainly possible that, in the communique of the Group of Eight, something will be said about that issue along those lines, including, obviously, dealing with the issue of, if Mr. Milosevic isn't going to comply, what it is they will intend to do, but I can't prefigure that for you. We haven't had a chance to have even a preliminary set of discussions. They have begun just a few minutes ago.
Q: Just one other small point. We picked up some rumors in that part of the world that there might be some kind of Contact Group or American delegation going to Belgrade today or this weekend?
PRESS SPOKESMAN RUBIN: I'm not aware of that right now.
Q: Any update on the Middle East, on what you are doing and what are the prospects for Monday coming?
PRESS SPOKESMAN RUBIN: My understanding is Ambassador Ross is having his first meeting beginning in the last nine minutes, which is a way of saying that Secretary Albright...
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: They may be an hour ahead of us.
PRESS SPOKESMAN RUBIN: Oh right, 2:30 is the number that I heard.
UNDER SECRETARY PICKERING: 2:30 there, I think.
PRESS SPOKESMAN RUBIN: This is a way of saying that Secretary Albright is following this extremely closely. We are hopeful that in the final days of discussions with Ambassador Ross, a way can be found to bridge the remaining gap and to bring this to closure because the invitation to Washington is only a few days away and that invitation is, as the Secretary said, conditional on the parties accepting the ideas the United States put forward. That is not to rule out some minor refinements, but on the key elements of the ideas, there would not be any change or, as the Secretary said, watering them down is not being considered.
Q: Are you still targeting Monday as the date or is there a possibility of it slipping?
PRESS SPOKESMAN RUBIN: Any international enterprise never rules anything out permanently, but the invitation is for Monday.
(end transcript)