4:15 P.M. EDT
MS. NISBET: Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome everyone, and especially Under Secretary Alan Larson. Under Secretary Larson is here today to preview the upcoming Broader Middle East and North Africa meetings, as well as to discuss U.S. participation in other UNGA meetings this week. He'll give opening remarks, and then following his remarks, please state your name and affiliation before asking a question.
Thank you.
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Good afternoon, and thank you for taking some time. I'd like to focus on two initiatives that we are working on. They're not the only ones, but they're ones that we'd like to focus on in this briefing.
The one I'm going to start with is cooperation that is being launched between the countries and peoples of the Broader Middle East and those of the G-8 nations in support of creating greater opportunities in the area of education, the area of economic advancement and in the areas of participation in the life of countries and in the governance of countries.
We have been very impressed by the drive from within the region of the Broader Middle East for economic, educational and governance reform. And one only needs to look at documents like the Arab League Summit Declaration at Tunis earlier this year, the interesting reports from the Arab Human Development Report done under the auspices of the United Nations but done by Arab scholars, and declarations of the Arab Business Council to see that there is a very strong impetus for constructive change coming from the region.
The G-8 countries have seen that and they are trying to respond in ways that are as helpful and supportive as possible; and at Sea Island, when President Bush hosted the G-8 Summit, he invited representative countries of the Broader Middle East to participate in some of the deliberations, and there we issued documents pledging the support of the G-8 countries to assist in the efforts for reform and for creating greater opportunity.
Out of that commitment, several specific ideas came forward, the most important and central of which is the idea of a Forum for the Future. This week, Secretary of State Powell will host, along with his Moroccan counterpart, Foreign Minister Benassia, a meeting of foreign ministers where we will discuss the best way to carry forward this idea of a Forum for the Future, and we would certainly hope that, out of that meeting, there would be agreement to move forward with this initiative, and perhaps we'll be able to agree on a time and a place for the first meeting.
As we discuss these very broad issues of architecture and the structure of cooperation, we are also going to be discussing progress in some of the more specific initiatives that came forward in Sea Island. For example, there was an agreement to cooperate on micro-finance, and, in the meantime, the governments of Jordan and Yemen have been working on elements of a best practices center in Jordan and a pilot project in Yemen. There has been agreement to work towards the creation of a regional facility in the International Finance Corporation that could support small business lending, and we've been raising money for that. There's been agreement that we ought to support literacy initiatives in the region, there will be reports from a number of countries on the work that they're doing on literacy, and there's also been very strong interest in initiatives to promote business education and entrepreneurial education because so many young people in the region are saying that they think they can best make a contribution to their country's development by starting and running businesses, but they would like help in learning some of the skills that are required.
So there are a host of other initiatives like this that we will have reports on during the meetings that will take place on Thursday and Friday. Thursday will be a senior officials meeting that I will be chairing with a Moroccan counterpart; and then on Friday we'll have the real meeting, the meeting that the Secretary of State and the Moroccan Foreign Minister will chair. We expect attendance by 19 or 20 ministers or more, so we are getting very strong expressions of support and attendance and there will be senior officials from additional countries that will be represented at that meeting.
I am going to be very brief in discussing the other initiative that I'm briefing on, and that's the luncheon that was just held at the Millennium Plaza Hotel on the subject of unleashing entrepreneurship to eradicate poverty. This is really an event that was done to highlight the results of a report that was done for Secretary General Annan by a commission, and the commission was led by Paul Martin, who is now the Prime Minister of Canada, and Ernesto Zedillo, the former President of Mexico.
The basic theme of this report is that business, in particular business in developing countries -- small business, domestic business -- makes an indispensable contribution to economic development and poverty eradication through job creation, through addressing the needs of poor people through the provision of services. There was a tremendous depth and texture in this report and a number of very important recommendations for governments, for the private sector and for public-private partnerships. And we were able during this meeting to hear remarks from the Secretary of State, remarks from Prime Minister Martin, remarks from former President Konaré, who is now with the African Union, and remarks from Mr. Quadir, who is a Bangladesh entrepreneur who has found a way to market telephone services through the business model of the Grameen Bank.
And as he said in his remarks today, he discovered in thinking about his experience as a poor youngster in Bangladesh as well as a successful business executive here in the United States, that connectivity is productivity and in poor countries there is must lost economic output because people can't be in touch with each other. And he has managed to make a market but also, more importantly, to provide a service that's making people in Bangladesh much more efficient. And this is something that the G-8 supported at Sea Island and it's something that the G-8 launched very specific initiatives on.
More important than that, in my view, is the fact that many developing country leaders are adopting this report as guidelines for them as they try to work with their citizens to provide sustainable development and greater opportunity.
So, with those opening remarks, I'd be happy to try to answer your questions on either the Middle East initiative or the entrepreneurship session that we just held.
Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Umit Enginsoy, with NTV service, Turkey. Two things. First, I asked this question at the Sea Island Summit and (inaudible) developing (inaudible). What kind of (inaudible) contribution are you expecting from Turkey (inaudible)?
And second thing, (inaudible) concern and (inaudible) prosperity of countries (inaudible) languages (inaudible) with the IMF. Although these details are not clear, would you (inaudible) support a follow-up arrangement with the IMF? Thank you.
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Turkey is a unique country that, in many respects, is a bridge between Europe and this region, the Broader Middle East. It's a country that has had great experience as a moderate country with a large Islamic population, a country that has combined devotion to religious faith along with a secular tradition in its political life. It's a country that has achieved a significant degree of prosperity even as it aspires to achieve greater prosperity.
So we have seen, by virtue of its experience, that Turkey offers a very interesting perspective on the question of how G-8 countries and the countries of the Broader Middle East can cooperate together in pursuit of greater opportunity and advancement. Turkey has been very active in the preparatory process for the meeting and Turkey, of course, will be participating at ministerial level on Friday.
You know, on your question -- the question you raised about the IMF is essentially a bilateral question so I'm going to deal with it only very quickly. As you know, we have been very strong supporters of Turkey's sustained effort over the last three years or so to modernize its economy, to stabilize its finances and to do so through close cooperation with the International Monetary Fund. I am not familiar with the details of the announcement that you just made, but I think our past stance on this speaks quite clearly enough.
Please. Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Giampiero Gramaglia, Italian News Agency, ANSA. In which way, which measure do you feel that the Broader Middle East Initiatives are affected by the lack of progress, of the insufficient progress in the situation and the stability of the Iraq and other Middle Eastern region?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: We have made very clear at every opportunity that we go into this effort on the Broader Middle East with several things clearly in mind. One is that reform must come from within the region. The second is that the countries of the region will each find their own path and their own pace. The third is that our cooperation in this area does not in any measure diminish our attention and determination to work for peace in the Middle East between the Palestinians and the Arabs (sic) and that the task of helping the Iraqi people move forward to elections and rebuild their country after 25 years of misrule is a central challenge that we all must be a part of.
Now, is there a relationship between that last point and the challenge of the Broader Middle East? Well, to some extent, I suppose there is. I think success in Iraq will show that even in a country that's had an enormous -- is climbing a very steep hill as it recovers from the 25 years or so of misrule, you know, that their success will give confidence and will be a very good example in the rest of the region.
But I think, you know, as one travels around this region it's clear that, you know, each country and each country's people understand that as they move into the 21st century they need to find ways to be competitive, to provide good opportunities for their young people to realize their ambitions and to participate in government. And so this is something that is not related necessarily to any broader agenda than just the interest of people to provide for a better opportunity, more future -- more opportunity, more freedom in the future. And so in one sense it's very domestic and that's why each country is going to find its own path.
Sir.
QUESTION: Tomji Tatsumi, Kyodo News (Inaudible) establish (inaudible) UN (inaudible) Democracy Fund. And could you -- he just mentioned that he support. Could you give us detail if you have it now of the kind of scale and the role and could you explain the coordination between Middle East initiative, Middle East initiative and the fund?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: I can't give you any real specifics on that fund or on the link between that fund and the Broader Middle East. What I can do is point out that in the Broader Middle East there have been very strong calls for developing stronger institutions of free societies. Again, if you look at these declarations to which I referred you -- the Arab League Summit and the Sanaa declaration, the Arab Business Council declaration -- you see references to the importance of having strong parliaments, the importance to having free and professional media, the importance of having judicial systems that are independent and have integrity.
And as we looked at those calls from within the region, we in the G-8 began to look at what we could do and what we were doing to help, and we discovered that in many ways, in many instances, there is cooperation on building some of these institutions of democracy, institutions of free society. For example, many G-8 countries are supporting parliamentary exchanges that are designed to help parliamentarians strengthen their sense of what their responsibilities are in a free society or in a democracy. We have a number of training programs for judges, not just the United States but other countries in the G-8. There are many initiatives underway to help women develop some of their skills to play a larger role in political life in the region.
So these are the types of things that the G-8 countries are doing in cooperation with friends in the region, and I think they're examples of the types of things that one can do in a broader democracy initiative.
In each case, you're going to be working with the government, you're going to be working on what their priorities are, but you're going to be trying to strengthen these basic fundamental institutions that are the bedrock foundation of free societies. And I think the record so far has been very positive, but clearly there's a lot more that we'll be able to do.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Maybe briefly. We've got a --
QUESTION: Nikkei newspaper, Japan.
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Yeah.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) this Democracy Fund is --
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Well, again, I want to make very clear I'm having nothing to say about the Democratic Fund. That's the President's initiative and the President and the White House will have more to say about that, for sure. All I'm doing is giving you some examples in the context of today's briefing on the Broader Middle East of the types of things that governments from G-8 countries are already doing to support democratic institutions in the Broader Middle East. That's what I'm trying to do.
Please.
QUESTION: Sylviane Zehil, L’Orient Le Jour, Lebanon. Is there a relationship between the Resolution 1559 on Syrian occupation of Lebanon and the Broader Middle East Initiative?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: I don't draw a particularly close link. What -- again, I've tried to explain a very sort of positive or direct way what we're trying to accomplish in the Broader Middle East, and that's basically to support the domestic efforts within the region of the Broader Middle East to provide more opportunity, to provide more freedom, to provide more scope for the modernization of education and economic structures and of governance structures. And the resolution to which you refer is obviously a very specific one related to --
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Well, to some extent I agree. And we certainly welcomed our collaboration on that initiative with some of the other Security Council members, notably France.
QUESTION: Choongo Moonga, Incisive Media. Do you have preliminary criteria set for eligibility into the Forum of the Future?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: We have not set firm eligibility criteria and, for my government's part, we have seen this as a grouping that should be self-selective and it should have a somewhat open architecture. We are not interested in drawing bright lines on a map and saying countries within this circle are eligible and countries outside of this circle are not eligible to participate.
Clearly, there is a regional focus of sorts and it might be unusual if Chile said that it wanted to be a member. But we really have thought that the basic principle should be self-selection and an interest in the basic goals of the forum; and the basic goals being, again, to cooperate in promoting more opportunity and freedom and modernization of structures in areas like education and economics and governance.
Please.
QUESTION: Ai Awaji from Jiji Press, Japan. Do you expect any statement or concrete outcome of this Friday's meeting?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Well, let's see. I think I anticipate that it may be possible to have some sort of statement. It might end up being a chairman's statement rather than a communiqué, where every comma and every word is negotiated. But I sense, in the discussions I've had so far with participants, I sense a readiness to see some type of document emerge that summarizes the basic lines of the discussion and summarizes some of the main conclusions, including our plans for moving forward with the establishment of a Forum for the Future.
We will have more to say on that, of course, Friday afternoon when the meeting will have ended. And I believe at that time Secretary Powell and probably Foreign Minister Benaissa will be making some comments to the press.
QUESTION: Nancy Leahy. I work for (inaudible) Shimbun, a Japanese paper. How would you respond to critics who might say that there's an inherent flaw in getting these governments to agree to these reforms when it might not be in their interest to actually genuinely announce the reform because it might result in them losing power that they may have gained, not by the voice of the people?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: When we listen to the people of the region, we hear very, very strong expressions of interest in moving forward with the process of reform and creating more opportunity in the areas I've mentioned. And we believe that governments are listening to those voices and that's one of the reasons why you hear governments embracing reform in statements like the Arab League Summit declaration in Tunis.
We believe that it is important to the success of the forum to continue to have a window to these voices, and so we have agreed -- we have proposed in the G-8 and countries have agreed to a format that includes a parallel dialogue organized by the business communities of the region and of the G-8 as well as a parallel civil society dialogue, including representatives of the region and the G-8.
And we are building this into the very first meeting, the preparatory meeting we're having. These two dialogues will meet tomorrow afternoon by themselves so that they can establish their goals and priorities and the advice that they want to be given to -- that they want to give to governments. And then Friday morning, as really the first order of business, one of the first orders of business, the ministers will listen to brief reports from representatives or rapporteurs from each of these dialogues, the business dialogue and the civil society dialogue.
So what we're trying to do is build into the process this opportunity for these representatives of the private sector and civil society to keep before governments their views, their priorities, their advice, and to some extent their -- the urgency they feel about moving forward with these reforms. And I think that's one way of making sure that governments remain tuned in to these concerns on the part of peoples of the region. And I think it's a format that could go a long way to keeping this whole forum fresh and dynamic and relevant to the interests of the people.
Please.
QUESTION: Maurizio Molinari, La Stampa. On the approach of the government of Egypt, the plan of reform, remembering that President Mubarak didn't come (inaudible), and if, in the (inaudible), the (inaudible) interest was higher, lower than before?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: I had this morning a very good meeting with representatives of the government of Egypt to talk through the preparations for the meetings that will take place on Thursday and Friday. We are looking forward to very active Egyptian participation at both meetings and their Foreign Minister, Egypt's Foreign Minister, will be attending, we are informed, the meeting on Friday.
And I think that the discussions that we have been able to have with our friends in Egypt over the last several weeks and couple of months have given us an opportunity to make very clear that we are serious when we say this is not about imposing reform, this is about responding to the interests of the region and the region's people in having reform.
We respect the fact that different countries will find their own path and set their own pace for reform, and that we recognize very much the strong role that Arab institutions have played in bringing this issue forward. It was, after all, Arab scholars who provided most of the work for the Arab Human Development Report. The Arab League Summit was a place where many of the most powerful statements about the need for reform were made. It's the Arab Business Council that played a leadership role in bringing the business community together.
So while we do not think that this issue is limited to the Arab world, and in response to your colleague's question we made clear we do see this as, in our own minds, as a forum that should have an open architecture.
We have also made very clear that we respect and recognize the strong role that Arab organizations and Arab institutions have played and we're working to make sure that that is constantly in mind. And there may be some initiatives that are taken that sort of build on that particular Arab dimension of the process.
Please.
QUESTION: Choongo Moonga, Incisive Media (Inaudible – regarding micro-finance to assist poor.)
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Well, definitely, definitely. And in some respects, we're already building that in. I mean, just to amplify a little bit on what's already underway, I mentioned in passing earlier that we are working on some micro-finance initiatives. Well, the micro-finance initiative has really been developed in cooperation with the World Bank's Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, or CGAP, as it's called. And we would anticipate that CGAP would continue to be a partner with this group in carrying forward these micro-finance initiatives.
Similarly, the International Finance Corporation, which is affiliated with the World Bank, is the centerpiece of the initiative to provide a new facility to promote small business lending in the region. So they are wired in from the beginning.
A third initiative that I didn't mention in my overview is called the Network of Funds, and the idea behind the Network of Funds is to provide a small forum of -- a small financial forum that would allow multilateral development banks and other government development-oriented institutions that have money to invest in the Middle East to meet together and to discuss ways of improving the investment climate and finding ways of bringing more capital into the Middle East area. And they will provide advice to finance ministers in the region as well as in the G-8 about how to move forward. And so we expect the MDBs to be very active participants in that group.
I could go on, but those show you three interesting examples of how the international financial institutions can be built into this.
QUESTION: Sylviane Zehil. Can we have the name of the country -- countries?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: I can't give it to you off the top of my head. Let me see if we can get for you --
MS. NISBET: We can follow up.
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: We can follow up and give you some of those basic factual --
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Oh, most of the Arab countries are going to be represented in one way or the other. And actually, the Arab League, as Arab League, is going to participate as well.
QUESTION: Is Lebanon going to be there?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Yes, I believe so. And one thing I should have mentioned, by the way, and your question about Lebanon prompts me to mention it, is after the meetings this week there will be a second meeting of finance officials in Washington, finance ministers, basically, that Secretary Snow will chair, and that will focus in more detail on some of these economic issues and some of the ways that the multilateral institutions and the IFIs can participate.
I bring this up in connection with Lebanon because I know that Lebanon has been particularly active in providing ideas for this work in the finance ministry channels. Obviously, the culmination of this work will be the meeting of the Forum of the Future, which we see as a group that would bring together foreign ministers and finance ministers and other ministers in cross-cutting work, and we would expect that meeting to take place sometime before the end of the year.
Yes.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.) Could you elaborate on the answer to my previous question?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: I can try.
QUESTION: You had mentioned that tomorrow afternoon you had proposed a parallel dialogue between --
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: That's correct.
QUESTION: -- with business leaders and civil society leaders. Can you say who they are and how they are chosen and what you hope will come out?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Sure. Let me start with the business dialogue because that's the one that, given my responsibilities, I've been most actively involved in. Thank you.
The business dialogue includes, I think, probably, 25 to 30 business executives from the Broader Middle East region and from G-8 countries. We -- recognizing the role that the Arab Business Council has played as a regional grouping, we went first to the Arab Business Council and secured their support and involvement, and so we have the chairman and some of the members of the executive committee of the Arab Business Council as a nucleus for this business group.
But with advice from the business people themselves, we have reached out for executives throughout the region who are not necessarily associated with the Arab Business Council but who play a very large role in the business life of their own countries. And then we've done the same with help of our G-8 colleagues. In consultation with them, we've come up with some individuals who might represent the G-8, the business communities of the G-8 countries.
We expect that the business group will get together tomorrow afternoon and deliberate on the sort of advice that they want to give to countries about -- to leaders, to ministers, about what sort of policies are going to be important if their countries are going to be competitive, if they're going to be successful economically.
We also expect and hope that they will address some of the more specific issues that have been placed on this agenda. For example, they are intending to talk about human capital, because as business executives, their success depends a lot on the quality of the workers and executives on whom they can draw. I'm hoping that in the same sense they will be able to talk a little bit about issues related to business education and entrepreneurial training.
Finally, we hope that they will be in a position to talk about issues related to trade and investment because we think they can provide very important advice to yet another initiative that I hadn't yet described, an investment task force, a task force that would help governments get good advice in the search of policies that would create the most business friendly environment and do the best job of attracting investment from within the country and outside the country.
We hope that, you know, after four hours or so, four or five hours of deliberation, they will be able to come forward with what they think their priority message should be to government ministers, and then that they will be able to select a couple from their number who could come and report to the ministers on the following day.
The process on the civil society side is very similar. One difference is that the United Nations Development Program in Beirut helped in the organization of the civil society dialogue and the UNDP in Beirut actually organized a meeting in Beirut a few weeks ago where a number of these same NGO representatives participated and developed some initial ideas on the advice that they want to give us.
MS. NISBET: If I could interrupt, there's a question from Washington, straight ahead. Go ahead, Washington, with your question.
QUESTION: Hoda Tawfik, Al Ahram, Egypt. Why are not more Arab countries participating such as Syria and Libya and other Arab countries? Why are countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan participating?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Surely. We will get a precise invitation list or list of participants for you shortly. We have chosen not to invite for this meeting in the United States representatives of two countries that are still on our list of state sponsors of terrorism, and it's really as simple as that. We are including in the invitation a representative of the Arab League, so, in addition to having representatives of each of the Arab countries, we are inviting the regional organization as well.
Our sense on the participation of countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan is that these are countries that face very similar challenges, or at least challenges that have enough similarities that there will be a good opportunity to learn from each other's experiences. I was just in Islamabad on Monday of last week, and in talking to the Prime Minister of that country I heard about their efforts to have a stronger educational system that gave higher quality education and helped equip their students to participate effectively in the world economy; I heard about the efforts that the Prime Minister was making to work with the legislature in Pakistan to move forward with reform proposals and an initiative to work with a nongovernmental organization called Transparency International to strengthen the sense of what transparency in government should mean; and we also talked about the very strenuous efforts that Pakistan is going to be making to build on the financial stability that it's achieved and try to attract more investment and to increase exports.
And I think, you know, when I listen to that sort of an agenda, it's precisely the type of agenda that I hear about when I visit Jordan or Cairo or Saudi Arabia or other countries, and I'm sure that the Pakistanis can learn from what's going on in their neighbors' countries and that their neighbors may find something of benefit in hearing about what is going on in Pakistan.
So that's the rationale for this particular list of countries. As I said, though, at the beginning or near the beginning in response to an earlier question, the list of participants in this exercise has not been cast in stone by this meeting. This is just a preparatory meeting to establish the Forum for the Future. And I would expect that that participation would be likely to expand in the future, just as in the case of APEC we started with nine or ten countries and we now have 19 or 20 countries that are participants.
Sir.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: No, I think our questioner just mentioned two countries that weren't invited, Syria and Libya.
QUESTION: Maurizio Molinari. President Bush, in his speech to the UN, pointed out the problem of the hate propaganda that's in the Arab world, Arab education. Is this one of the issues that you're going to discuss with your counterparts?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: I don't know if it will come up. It's not a formal agenda item, but it's certainly something that ministers may choose to raise. We'll just have to see.
QUESTION: But if you are transforming the decision -- will the U.S. raise the issue?
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: Hate --
QUESTION: Propaganda. Hate (inaudible) against Jews, Israel.
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: There is no specific agenda item that's been laid out in the preparations on this. What my Secretary ends up saying or what other ministers end up saying is, you know, what they'll decide and I think we'll just have to wait and let ministers be ministers to see what topics actually are discussed in detail.
I think I can give a very general answer to your question and it's probably an unsatisfactory one, but I think that I have talked about our view that a responsible and a free press is part of what we see as the foundation for democracy and that one of the areas where it's important to have a strong foundation for democracy is in providing training where training is desired, you know, on what norms, journalistic norms are, what one should do if one is trying to be a responsible journalist operating in the context of a free media.
And as one sees, those are lessons that are never completely learned. We have a lot of controversies within the United States about free and responsible media. But I think having that debate go on and having cooperation among countries on how to best promote strong, free professional media is something that's very positive and it could conceivably get into the sort of specific issue that you asked us about.
QUESTION: There is a possibility that the United States will invite Syria and Libya before they are lifted from the --
UNDER SECRETARY LARSON: No, we're talking -- look, we're having one meeting. It's going to take place on Thursday and Friday. The countries that are coming have already informed us. So the point is that we'll get through this meeting and hopefully you will be able to attend the press conference on Friday and learn that something new in the world has been born, and that's a forum of cooperation, and where that forum is taken in the future is something that the participants will decide.
You know, we've come forward with an idea for a forum and seven specific initiatives, but the most important thing about this is that it is an offer, an unprecedented offer, on the part of G-8 countries for a sustained, cooperative, respectful relationship with the countries of the Broader Middle East to help them achieve goals they've set for themselves. That's what's going on. The rest is detail.
Thank you.
