British Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Secretary Jack Straw was out wooing South Africa this week, promising better deals that could be on the table for the African continent in the G8 summit next month. In exchange Straw appeared to be looking for support for Britain’s stance on Iraq at the United Nations.
A new draft resolution, largely written by Straw, about Iraq’s future was informally circulated within the UN Security Council last week. In a speech at the University of South Africa (Unisa) on Wednesday, Straw spoke of the resolution and defended Britain and the United States against criticism that they had damaged the UN and multilateralism.
South Africa has been one of the most vocal opponents of Britain’s policy on Iraq. Straw said: “Some of the most trenchant criticism of Britain’s policy towards Iraq has come from this country and this continent.”
Then he went on to defend his country’s position: “I know that many people worry that, in removing the threat [of] Saddam Hussein and his deadly weapons, we have ushered in a dangerous new era, where force of arms and national self-interest will prevail over force of reason and the collective good.
“The multilateral system is also crucial to a more prosperous world. I want to see progress, far more than we have seen to date, in the [World Trade Organisation] negotiations to open up world trade for the benefit of all — and in particular people in the developing countries.”
Straw cited the “outrageously high” subsidies paid to farmers in the north to the detriment of the developing world in the south, which he said must go.
“We have a problem — if we don’t deal with it, all the development aid we are producing will have much less effect than if we can open up our markets … to produce from Africa.”
He went on to say that the success of the G8 Summit leaders at Evian next month would involve “a visible demonstration of the will of the major industrialised countries to come together for the benefit of the world as a whole”.
He added a sugary touch: “President [Thabo] Mbeki will be there to help secure that outcome.”
In response to a tongue-in-cheek query about whether Britain “belonged” to Europe or to the United States, Straw was at pains to explain that while support for its stance on Iraq had been split initially within the European Union, the situation had changed. He said support for Britain within the EU had grown from 15 countries to 25.
Straw said the British-sponsored draft UN resolution would establish a UN special coordinator, lift sanctions, create an Iraqi assistance fund to target resources to reconstruct Iraq and put in place arrangements for the sale of oil which ensured that all revenue was used for the benefit of the Iraqi people.
The British secretary also spoke at length about Mbeki’s pet project, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), and described it as the “epitome of multilateralism”. The north has often used Nepad — which lays down the ground rules for good governance — to put pressure on the continent to address human rights abuses and conflicts, particularly Zimbabwe.
It is understood that Straw emphasised the point in his talks with his South African counterpart, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
A British foreign affairs source dismissed reported remarks by Prime Minister Tony Blair that Zimbabwe was to feature on the G8’s agenda, saying that it was France that was insistent on including it to remove the focus of attention from the victory that UK and US had scored in Iraq.
In a joint press conference in Parliament, Straw said an agreement had been reached that Zimbabweans themselves would have to determine their future. Both the UK and South Africa agreed that all parties to the conflict in that country needed to be encouraged to remove obstacles to negotiations.
“They [South Africa and the UK] underlined that the longer the problems in Zimbabwe remain unresolved, the more entrenched poverty will become,” Straw said in a communiqué issued at the end of his visit.
“They stressed their commitment to an outcome in which the people of Zimbabwe enjoy independence, freedom, peace, stability, democracy and prosperity.”
At the end of Straw’s two-day visit, bilateral discussions resulted in the commitment of £30-million, to be made available over three years in four main fields: poverty reduction strategy and analysis; growth, jobs, equity; democracy, governance and service delivery and HIV/Aids.
In addition, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and South Africa’s Treasury would work together to draft joint cooperation programmes in areas such as local government, land reform and justice. This follows the DFID’s finalisation of a new strategy for development cooperation for Southern Africa as a whole.
Bilateral discussions aimed to ensure that the recruitment of skilled South Africans to the UK, predominantly doctors and nurses, would not undermine South Africa’s socio-economic development.