British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was aiming to build new international alliances for a fight against global poverty yesterday, using a UN speech to press nations, businesses and individuals to back ambitious plans to revive a stalled global development plan.
His call for a push on aid and diplomacy followed a two-day summit with US President George W. Bush, where the new British chief pledged support for military action in Iraq and Afghanistan and tough measures to tackle terrorism.
British officials have insisted Brown's foreign policy will be marked by his desire to mix the use of force and sanctions with backing for development and economic aid programs. Brown has called it a balance of ``hard power and soft power.''
PHOTO: AP
His attempts to lead the international community in efforts to break an impasse on stalled world trade negotiations and on halting violence in Sudan's Darfur region are read by some as a bid to atone for predecessor Tony Blair's unpopular backing for the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Officials said Brown hopes to harness the popular global support won by campaigns such as Make Poverty History and Live Earth to support his development drive.
In a speech to the UN yesterday, Brown planned to press an audience of business leaders, non-governmental organizations and international delegates over failures in meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
A report card published earlier this month showed that progress toward achieving the benchmarks on reducing global poverty and increasing access to childcare and education, agreed to at a UN summit in 2000, was poor, Brown's aides said.
Brown has held talks with U2 singer and anti-poverty campaigner Bono about the goals and plans to enlist businesses, including Google and Wal-Mart, to help governments achieve the development goals, British officials said.
Speaking to reporters at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel, Brown said he would also demand backing for efforts to authorize a 26,000-strong combined UN-African peacekeeping force for Darfur.
The leader's Downing Street office said Brown hoped initial troops could be deployed by October in an attempt to halt the fighting between ethnic African rebels and the pro-government janjaweed Arab militia in the western Sudanese region.
US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, said on Monday that Security Council members hoped to finalize a resolution within 24 hours.
Former president Bill Clinton also held brief discussions with the British leader at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Monday evening about his UN speech and work to helping developing nations, Brown told reporters.
Brown was due to appear on NBC television's Today show on Tuesday morning and meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Reginald Dale, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the British leader's decision to meet Bush and Ban on the same visit had caused some disquiet.
"They are angered that his visit is a twofer," Dale said. "Some Republicans believe Brown has deliberately gone to the UN to attempt to draw the sting out of meeting Bush for his domestic audience."
Talks on Sunday and on Monday at Bush's Camp David retreat in Maryland saw the British and US leaders pledge harmony over Iraq.
"There's no doubt in my mind he understands the stakes of the struggle," Bush said, heaping praise on Blair's successor.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television