1.27.2005
Blair Calls on U.S. to Take Climate Change Seriously (Reuters.com)
By Sean Maguire
26 January 2005
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - The United States, realizing it cannot defeat global threats like terrorism alone, must cooperate to fight other planetary challenges like climate change, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday.
"Interdependence is no longer disputed," said Blair, speaking to a forum of business and political leaders. "If America wants the rest of the world to be part of the agenda it has set, it must be part of their agenda too."
President Bush's inauguration speech last week showed the United States realized it could not defeat terror threats just by military means or on its own, said Blair, one of the U.S. leader's staunchest allies.
Defending the speech, which was accused of not reflecting the reality of U.S. policies, Blair said its support for extending democracy and liberty "emphatically puts defeating the causes of terrorism alongside defeating the terrorists."
Blair said after international divisions over the war in Iraq, there was "a wish to re-unify." He has predicted Bush's second term would see more account taken of the views of Europe, which the president visits next month on a fence-mending trip.
There was common purpose in fighting global terrorism, extending democracy and seeking peace in the Middle East, said Blair, stressing that those issues and his agenda for this year's Group of Eight presidency could not be decoupled.
Blair wants to focus British leadership of the G8 group of leading industrialized nations on relieving poverty and disease in Africa and on combating climate change.
(More ... Reuters.com > Home > News > Technology & Science > Science > Article > Blair Calls on U.S. to Take Climate Change Seriously) ¶ 10:41
26 January 2005
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - The United States, realizing it cannot defeat global threats like terrorism alone, must cooperate to fight other planetary challenges like climate change, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday.
"Interdependence is no longer disputed," said Blair, speaking to a forum of business and political leaders. "If America wants the rest of the world to be part of the agenda it has set, it must be part of their agenda too."
President Bush's inauguration speech last week showed the United States realized it could not defeat terror threats just by military means or on its own, said Blair, one of the U.S. leader's staunchest allies.
Defending the speech, which was accused of not reflecting the reality of U.S. policies, Blair said its support for extending democracy and liberty "emphatically puts defeating the causes of terrorism alongside defeating the terrorists."
Blair said after international divisions over the war in Iraq, there was "a wish to re-unify." He has predicted Bush's second term would see more account taken of the views of Europe, which the president visits next month on a fence-mending trip.
There was common purpose in fighting global terrorism, extending democracy and seeking peace in the Middle East, said Blair, stressing that those issues and his agenda for this year's Group of Eight presidency could not be decoupled.
Blair wants to focus British leadership of the G8 group of leading industrialized nations on relieving poverty and disease in Africa and on combating climate change.
(More ... Reuters.com > Home > News > Technology & Science > Science > Article > Blair Calls on U.S. to Take Climate Change Seriously) ¶ 10:41
