British PM Calls for New Partnership Between West, Africa

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 08, 2002

British PM Calls for New Partnership Between West, Africa

Visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair Thursday called for a new partnership between the West and African nations on strategies toward aggressive development.

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Visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair Thursday called for a new partnership between the West and African nations on strategies toward aggressive development.

Blair, who arrived in Nigeria's capital Abuja late Wednesday, told Nigerian lawmakers that Africa demands a new partnership based on the promise of the future and not out of desperation.

The British prime minister is the second foreign leader to address a joint session of the Nigerian national assembly after former U.S. President Bill Clinton in August 2000.

He pointed out that the formation of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is initiated to attract more attention from the developed countries to the development needs of the African people.

The British leader lamented that at least 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live on less one U.S. dollar per day, while the state of the continent has become "scar on the conscience of the world".

The NEPAD will be the focus of a major summit of African leaders in Paris on Friday, Blair said, adding that French President Jacques Chirac will meet the 13 African leaders to draw out strategies to carry out the NEPAD.

He also pledged that the NEPAD, spearheaded by the leaders of South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria and Algeria, will be "the key issue of the G8 summit in Canada this year".

Referring to how to help Africa to develop itself, Blair set out four areas focusing on, namely the promotion of peace across the continent; good governance economic reform and growth; and investment in people, health and education.

"My purpose is to develop support for a new partnership between Africa and the developed world," Blair said. "You need our support, yes, but we need you to succeed."

The West needs Africa to beat poverty and deprivation if the world is to be a safe place. "If Africa gains, we gain. The world will be safer and more just," he said.

He listed the resolution of crises in Liberia, the Sudan, Angola and the Great Lakes states as well as fighting against corruption and strengthening of democracy as some of the strategies that can make the continent leap forward.

The British prime minister called on the West to help African nations develop their own capacity to run peacekeeping operations under the U.N. system, saying that it is necessary for the G8 partners to "redouble efforts" to bring peace to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Sudan.

Before addressing the Nigerian parliament, Blair held a two- hour meeting with President Olusegun Obasanjo concentrating on how to increase aid and trade to Africa, and help African countries end conflicts and civil wars.

Over the next four days after his one-day tour to Nigeria, the British prime minister is expected to travel to Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

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