Britain & Russia Agree over Poverty & Climate as Blair Advances G8 Africa Mission

Britain and Russia moved towards a more united relationship Monday 13 June 2005, after a meeting took place between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russian President Vladamir Putin. During the meeting Putin gave his full backing to Blair’s G8 plans to eradicate poverty in Africa, as well as agreeing to Britain’s proposals on climate change.

The meeting between the two world leaders took place this morning at Novo-Ogaryevo, just outside Moscow, with Blair entering the talks reportedly very upbeat at a "real prospect" of next month’s Gleneagles summit resulting in a lasting and impacting change.

Recent debates between the two nations regarding positions on Iraq, and accusations against Russia of human rights abuses in Kosovo have led to some tense relations over recent years. However, undeterred Blair announced at a joint press conference after their informal meeting that the relationship between the two nations was "very strong".

Blair also stated that he was optimistic regarding the progress made so far on his G8 agenda, and to further this, he will now continue on his tour of the world’s leading nations by visiting Germany and France within the next 48 hours.

However, Blair did appear to have his feet firmly on the ground as he commented that there were clearly still some "hard negotiations" to take place on both poverty in Africa, and climate change. He did see the agreement reached by the leading industrial nations’ finance ministers at the weekend, to wipe out the debt of 18 of the world’s poorest countries, as a “good omen” for the upcoming Summit in Scotland.

At the press conference Putin also said, "We fully support the ideas put forward by the UK regarding the agenda of the upcoming meeting at Gleneagles."

Putin praised the British approach as being "very close to our (the Russian) approach."

Regarding climate change Putin was quick to show that Russia had signed up to the landmark Kyoto agreement last year. Forecasting Russia’s job next, as it takes over the G8 presidency after Britain, Putin referred clearly to the US as not yet agreeing to the Kyoto agreement, by adding, "It is also important to work with those countries that did not accede to this process."

The Russian President gave his full backing to reducing the debt of the poorest African nations, but also asked for the world to remember several of the former Soviet Republic states, such as Moldova and Kurdistan, which have not been recognised as heavily indebted countries.

Immediately after discussions with Mr Putin had been concluded, Blair departed for Berlin where he will meet Gerhard Schroeder – the German Chancellor. That meeting and the meeting with President Chirac of France tomorrow were scheduled to be dominated by the G8 agenda, but it appears that at least some of the discussions will go towards considering the huge deadlock that has appeared over Britain’s rebate.