The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Category: Prime Minister (1990-1997)

  • Mr Major’s Joint Press Conference with President de Klerk – 26 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint press conference with President de Klerk, held in London on Sunday 26th September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We have had a very worthwhile and constructive meeting this afternoon, we have been able to touch on a wide range of bilateral matters and some other matters as well.

    I wonder if it would be helpful, before I ask President de Klerk to say a few words, if I could just fill in some of the background of our discussion and the present circumstances.

    The South Africa Parliament adopted a few days ago legislation to set up a transitional executive council. I think it would be difficult to over-estimate how important a step that was, it has placed South Africa now very firmly on the road towards full non-racial democracy, it is what many people have sought for a long time and it is now well in hand. And I think the progress that has been made within South Africa has now opened the way for her to take her place in the international community, that is now much more widely recognised and I very much welcome that.

    The trade, the economic and the financial sanctions imposed by the European Community have already been lifted. The Commonwealth Secretary General has announced that Commonwealth sanctions are being lifted and South Africa should now have access to the international financial institutions, access to resources from the World Bank, and that is immensely helpful.

    We shall support lending both by the World Bank and of course the International Monetary Fund to South Africa, we will support other steps to encourage investment in South Africa, including the conference on South Africa which the CBI is holding on 12th October.

    I warmly welcome the lifting of economic sanctions. The South African economy has huge potential, I do not think anybody should have any doubt whatever about that, and outside help to regenerate it and to create more jobs will be absolutely vital to the transitional process and to future prosperity and employment for all South Africans.

    One of the questions that will lie there for a future South African government and for the Commonwealth will of course be South Africa’s future relationship with the Commonwealth. I speak personally now, for this will be a matter for a future South African government, but personally I very much look forward to seeing South Africa playing a full part in all international bodies and I hope returning in due course to the Commonwealth.

    There is still quite a lot to be done before we reach that goal, of course. The next step will be to reach agreement on an interim constitution governing next year’s elections and I hope that all South Africans, without exception, will support the process of transition and participate fully in the future democratic life of their country. I hope no-one will be encouraged to continue with any form of violence in South Africa.

    The opportunities that have been so carefully crafted over the past two years or so are remarkable. I hope that everyone will take the opportunity of taking advantage of the opportunities that now lie immediately ahead.

    As for the United Kingdom, we will do whatever we can to support the transitional process, we and our partners in the European Community and in the Commonwealth are ready to offer help in the holding of elections, we will continue to support South Africa with development aid and will continue to keep in close touch with all of South Africa’s leaders.

    I am delighted this afternoon to have heard of the changes that have been made at first hand from President de Klerk, if I may say so they owe much to his courageous leadership, often in very difficult circumstances. The Foreign Secretary and I have had meetings this year with Chief Buthelezi and I shall be seeing Mr Mandela again in another fortnight’s time, and I much look forward to that discussion.

    We will take all those opportunities to register our commitment to help the transition which is now beginning. It is a remarkable moment in time for South Africa, they are poised after a most difficult period to return fully to the community of nations and I think that is a source of great hope, not just for South Africans but for many people beyond South Africa who wish the country well.

    PRESIDENT DE KLERK:

    Thank you, Mr Prime Minister. From my side firstly a public thank you for a very warm reception, I valued the opportunity to discuss important matters of bilateral interest with you, to inform you of the dynamic process in South Africa to bring you fully up to date on a first-hand basis, to discuss some of our regional problems in southern Africa with you, and also to share with you a few thoughts with regard to future developments as we see them.

    May I say that the historical week which is ending today, the week in which South Africa has really returned to the international fold, can be regarded also as a vindication for the foreign policy which your government has followed over a number of years. When it was not popular to accept that the process was irreversible your government, and you Mr Prime Minister, have accepted our assurances in that regard and took a lead in opening doors for South Africa and in helping the normalisation of our international relations along. And we say thank you to the United Kingdom for this constructive approach which it has constantly followed with regard to South Africa.

    We are confident that the process which we have started will be taken through to its logical conclusion, namely the acceptance of a new constitution by Parliament before the end of this year, hopefully during November, a constitution in terms of which the first general election will be held in which all South Africans will vote and which will result in the establishment of a government of national unity which will for a period of five years focus on reconciliation, on ensuring economic development, on ensuring stability in our country. Violence continues to plague us, hopefully the transitional executive council which has as one of its main tasks to create an atmosphere conducive to free and fair elections will, with the multi-party cooperation which will take place within that transitional executive council, also make a valuable contribution towards bringing down the levels of violence.

    I sincerely also believe that when we produce final agreements, when the package is on the table and there for everybody to see, the mere fact that we have reached agreement will also have a marked effect on the levels of violence, because some of the violence which we have in the political sphere is aimed at derailing or delaying the constitutional negotiations, when the agreements are finalised I expect that those who are trying in a last gasp effort to interfere with the negotiations will obviously be in a position of having failed to do so.

    I have no doubt and I am confident that we will reach agreement and that those agreements will be inclusive also of some of the major role players who are at the moment not directly part of the multi-party negotiations, we are making good headway with bilateral discussions with the Inkatha Freedom Party resulting from an eight and a half hour meeting which I had a little bit more than a week ago with Chief Minister Buthelezi and my latest information is that in the bilaterals which results from our meeting, good progress is being made and constructive discussions are taking place.

     

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION:

    Why should Britain invest in a country which many will still say is far less stable, far less peaceful than others markets such as those nearer home?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think Britain is perfectly prepared to invest and I think the prospects for South Africa over the medium and long term are very good indeed, I think that is well recognised by United Kingdom investors. And I have no doubt once the confidence in the political settlement is clear that there will be a substantial amount of investment from this country and I suspect from many other countries as well.

    QUESTION:

    President de Klerk, what place will there be in the new South Africa and new constitution for those who claim still to want some kind of white homeland?

    PRESIDENT DE KLERK:

    I do not think there is any place for any form of race discrimination in the new South Africa. I think it is fundamentally necessary in South Africa to accommodate the fears and anxieties of cultural minorities in the cultural sense and therefore already in the draft bill of rights which is taking shape we are reaching consensus on issues such as the protection of the right of cultural groups with regard to culturally based and religiously based education, there must be effective protection of vested language rights and in the constitution provision will be made, it is taking shape at the moment, for the devolution of power to strong regional governments. In that I think also the aspirations of our many cultural groups, the many nations which together compose the South African nation, can to a great extent be fulfilled and most of those aspirations can, within a system of regional government, based on federal principles, be reasonably accommodated. But there is no place for racial discrimination, we dare not ever consider again in South Africa to have first and second class citizens.

    QUESTION:

    [Indistinct] talks between the ANC and the Afrikaaner [indistinct].

    PRESIDENT DE KLERK:

    We are also having bilaterals with them, I welcome the fact that such talks are taking place. I also welcome the fact the progress is registered if one analyses what Mr Mandela recently said and what General Fulyun [phon] is reported to have said about them. Also in our bilateral discussions with General Fulyun and a team from his organisation we are making some progress, slow progress. I am convinced that we can find a reasonable basis within the framework of the demographic realities of South Africa, the economic realities, as I have just in the previous reply stated, to lay a foundation which can offer a feeling of security to the various cultural groupings in South Africa and which can offer a form of self-determination with regard to that which is dear to the various cultural groups, which should satisfy any reasonable demands in that regard. So I welcome the progress which is being made.

    One must remember that until very recently we were called traitors because we were talking to the ANC and I welcome the fact that people who took up the attitude that they would not ever talk to them are now actually negotiating with them, negotiation is the only way to ensure peaceful solutions.

    QUESTION:

    Are we contemplating any concrete help to South Africa in the run-up to the election?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It depends what you mean by concrete help, there has been a certain amount of help and aid in the past and certainly we will continue to look at that. But I think both concrete and I suppose you may say ephemeral help, we are certainly there to help ensure that there is a satisfactory settlement, that has been an objective of British foreign policy for a long time. I am delighted that with the frankly courageous decisions taken both by President de Klerk and by Mr Mandela and others from time to time, we are now reaching the prospect of a genuine settlement and elections for a non-racial government, I welcome that very much. We will help in whatever way we can to help bring that about.

    QUESTION:

    No doubt President de Klerk will have told you that for democracy to work in South Africa there will have to be a lot of aid, new funds, I noticed Mrs Chalker was around, were you able to assure him that you will be able to increase aid to South Africa?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We did not discuss that in particular. What we did discuss of course is something far more important than bilateral aid, however important that may be, and that is of course of availability of resourcing from the international financial institutions, the World Bank and the IMF in particular, I suspect there will be an IMF programme at some stage, very possibly a structural adjustment programme, we will have to wait and see, but that will be of critical importance. But I would strongly suspect that the President will agree with the next point – the point of greatest importance is the fact that South Africa will be open again to investment from the international community and the availability of resourcing from the financial institutions, the impact of that is likely to dwarf any bilateral or multilateral aid, though I would strongly suspect there may well be significant multilateral aid in the years ahead.

    PRESIDENT DE KLERK:

    Yes, I fully associate with that reply, we really are not asking for handouts from anybody, we just want to qualify for schemes and facilities which are available to all countries throughout the world and we are prepared to meet the conditions which are set before you can qualify for such aid.

  • Mr Major’s Article on the European Union – 25 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s article on the European Union, published by The Economist on 25 September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    In the past year there has been a sense of malaise within Europe. The recession has played a large part in this. So has the debate in many countries about the Maastricht Treaty. So has Bosnia. But I believe the causes go deeper. The European Community has become ill at ease with itself and, for the time being, uncertain about its future course.

    A powerful view–still dangerously fashionable among some continental politicians–is that the fault of Maastricht lay in not going far enough; that economic problems require corporatist solutions that the free market cannot supply; that instability, East and West, requires faster progress towards integration; and that full federation is the grand vision of the future around which public opinion can unite.

    I believe profoundly that this view is wrong. It does not carry the hearts and minds of the electorates of Europe. They believe that decision-making in the Community must be brought closer to the people, not taken further away. Unless the Community is seen to be tackling the problems which affect them now, rather than arguing over abstract concepts, it will lose its credibility. Last year the Maastricht process nearly divided the Community. We cannot run that risk again.

    The debate over Europe has too often been conducted in extremes. Inevitably, those who take an extreme position for or against Europe do not discuss how best to improve the Community. For them it is too bad or too good to be properly considered–to some an article of faith, to others anathema. Yet the Community is no more than an instrument for improving the security and prosperity of European citizens. When it fails to measure up to that task, it lacks purpose.

    So I believe it is time to look afresh at the Community and consider the way ahead. Time to put away the old slogans, dreams and prejudices. All over Europe, what are people worrying about? Not to reduce the number of currencies, but to increase the number of jobs.

    We should focus first on the objectives of Europe, before debating its institutions. The concept of the Community has commanded support from right and left, right across Europe. The objectives of peace, stability, growth, prosperity and employment are shared by sceptics and enthusiasts alike.

    But from there on paths diverge. I do not want to caricature a debate full of subtle shades of opinion. But the prevalent view within the Community has been that unless the Community continued to march forward to ever tighter political and economic integration, ever greater uniformity, then its existing achievements would be eroded. The demons of nationalism would reassert themselves. Europe’s ability to compete with the United States, Japan and the Pacific rim would be undermined. The very future of the enterprise would be in jeopardy. Clinging to a false transatlantic analogy, they wanted to create a “United States of Europe”.

    There are, of course, some in Britain too who hold that view. There are, however, many more, myself among them, who do not; and not only in Britain. I believe it is that centralising vision that alarms so many voters in the applicant countries of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Austria. If their governments were to negotiate entry into the Community and then their electorates were to reject it, that would gravely damage the credibility of the Community and wreck–for a time–the development of a wider Europe.

    Community leaders should recognise that danger, and work to avoid it; not imply–as they sometimes do–that these EFTA (European Free Trade Area) countries are lucky to be able to apply. The Community is not Europe. A true European Community needs the EFTA countries and others.

    For the vast majority in Britain, the Community is still the best means of advancing Britain’s interests, political and commercial. After 20 years of membership, the overall balance sheet is positive. The disadvantages have been outweighed by the benefits: political stability throughout the Community and an economic prosperity in which we have shared.

    Successive Conservative governments have therefore supported the European Community as a way of securing peace, ensuring stability and increasing our standard of living. But we have opposed the centralising idea. We take some convincing on any proposal from Brussels. For us, the nation state is here to stay.

    Some differences in the Community are stark and simple. We counted the financial cost of our membership. Others counted their financial gain. We subjected each proposal to the scrutiny of Parliament. They relaxed in the sure knowledge that their public opinion uncritically endorsed the European idea. Hang the detail. Never mind the concession of power to Brussels.

    Maastricht changed all that. For the first time, the sort of questions that Britain had been asking were asked in other Community countries as well. The Danes wanted the safeguards for Denmark that I had secured for Britain. The German people did not want their government to sacrifice the D-mark. The French came within a whisker of saying “no” to the treaty their government had signed.

    Since then, the old complacency has taken a further jolt. Last autumn, when the pound left the ERM, I warned of the fault lines throughout the system. Some scoffed. The fault line was in British policy, they said. Not so. These policy fault lines lie across Europe; the ERM as a whole has foundered.

    I take no satisfaction in that. Exchange-rate stability is in the interests of business and thus of prosperity. But I am not prepared to sit down in Brussels in a few weeks’ time and pretend that Humpty Dumpty is whole and well. I care too much about the European Community to pursue sellotape policies–patching together the unmendable–or to play the politics of illusion–pretending that it was never broken. The good European does not cling to old nostrums, but seeks solutions to new problems.

    The most pressing item on the Community’s agenda is the GATT negotiations: the world’s last chance to complete the Uruguay round. Much now depends on the Community. The costs of failure would be very high. It is not only that we would pass up the benefits of a new, far-reaching and overdue trade agreement: lower prices, new markets for our exporters, a double boost to output and jobs. We stand to lose what we have now: international commitment to resist protectionist pressures. Only our joint interest in success in the Geneva negotiations on GATT has kept Europe and America back from trade war. Breakdown in those talks would threaten a repeat of the protectionism and isolationism of the 1930s when production fell by a fifth, investment by a half.

    Failure would lead to an immediate crisis within the European Community, and in its relations with the United States, countries of the Cairns Group and the whole developing world. It would fly in the face of Europe’s liberal economic principles; its commitment to free trade. It would confound the instinct for prosperity which drove us to break down national trade barriers and create our own single European market.

    The need for a new agenda

    In these circumstances, we cannot assemble for a special European Summit in October on the same, old, stale agenda. I hope my fellow heads of government will resist the temptation to recite the mantra of full economic and monetary union as if nothing had changed. If they do recite it, it will have all the quaintness of a rain dance and about the same potency.

    The troubles in the ERM are just a foretaste of the difficulties in moving to a full monetary union. There can be no question of Britain going back into the exchange-rate mechanism in the foreseeable future. And–while I always believed Europe’s ambition for monetary union later this decade was unrealistic–by now the folly of the artificial timetable has become glaringly apparent to many across Europe. The plain fact is that economic and monetary union is not realisable in present circumstances and therefore not relevant to our economic difficulties.

    So let us have a very serious debate based, not on wishful thinking, but on the real situation in Europe and the world. Let us look at workable ways of promoting economic convergence. Let us, above all, concentrate on people’s real economic concern– Europe’s shortage of jobs. To do that, we must address the decline in our competitive position.

    In June, I urged this on my colleagues at the European Summit at Copenhagen. The facts spoke plainly. Long-term unemployment is higher in the European Community than in either Japan or the United States. There is now increasing agreement that these problems stem from the inflexibility of European labour markets, from the tangle of regulations, from wasteful systems of welfare, from the burden of too high taxation, which Europeans have imposed upon themselves in the last 40 years.

    European labour costs rose by 4% a year during the 1980s, while barely changing amongst our major competitors. Europe spends proportionately nearly twice as much as the Japanese on public social security and health care, and over 60% more than the Americans. The problem will be compounded as the proportion of old people in our population increases. Unless we take action to contain costs, Europe’s taxpayers will be paying 30% more for social security and health–in real terms–by 2020. Unless we act to deregulate our economies, there will be too few earners in Europe to pay those tax bills.

    There has been increasing recognition from my colleagues since the Copenhagen European Summit that this analysis is correct. The Community must take practical decisions: to complete the single market for goods and services and make it work; to review and repeal many of the burdens on business and industry; to play our part in the conclusion of crucial world trade negotiations.

    A wider Europe

    Some critics may say that this is a typically British agenda: climbing the foothills when we should be scaling the peaks. This criticism is puerile. It ignores the arguments. The Europe I believe in extends far beyond today’s Community.

    The vision of the founders of the Community was a fine one. What we have seen in the last two years is not so much a swing against Europe as a demand for a different kind of Europe. The structures and strategies envisaged in the Treaty of Rome are the product of Europe in the 1950s. It is natural they should be clung to by a generation of European politicians whose views were moulded in the 1950s and 1960s. But the new mood in Europe demands a new approach.

    The new mood reflects new realities. The Treaty of Rome was designed for the countries of Western Europe; to enable them to compete with each other, not fight against each other. It was designed to help them stand up to that illusory economic might of the Soviet empire; to complement Western Europe’s defences against the real fear of nuclear war.

    The challenge to this generation of European leaders is to build a Community for the whole of Europe. That is a bigger vision. They must address three questions. How should the West Europeans organise their security? How should the Community extend its embrace to the EFTA countries and to Eastern Europe? And what do these questions imply for the Community and its institutions?

    During the Cold War, defence was costly but relatively simple. We knew what the threat was and where it came from. We could measure its military strength, and see what we had to do to meet it.

    Today the threats to our security are harder to define. But they are no less real for that. There is instability inside Europe and beyond. Some countries are collapsing into chaos, remain under the rule of dictators, or are pushing to acquire weapons of mass destruction. The North Atlantic alliance will remain our only effective instrument against the remote contingency of a direct attack against us. It will remain the only credible vehicle for a tangible American commitment to the security of our continent.

    But the alliance will have to adapt. It is already devising more flexible structures, developing its relationships with its former opponents from the Warsaw Pact. The West Europeans will take on greater responsibility for the European pillar of the alliance. There is a heavy agenda for the NATO summit this winter.

    In the 1970s Greece, Portugal and Spain turned to the European Community as the only firm anchor for their newly-founded democratic systems. Europe has been stronger and more authentic as a result. We have an equal duty towards the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. Not even the most advanced of them, of course, is yet ready for membership. Before they can sustain its obligations they must complete an economic as well as political revolution. But we can–and must–get ahead with dismantling the barriers to their exports. In the short term that will cause us difficulty. But freedom to trade is essential to the success of economic reform; and will in turn create opportunities for our own investors and exporters.

    The present Community is but a fragment of Europe. If we fail to bring the democratic countries of Eastern and Central Europe into our Community, we risk re-creating division in Europe–between the haves and the have-nots. Through Community membership we can consolidate democracy and prosperity across our continent. Without it, we risk turmoil among our neighbours in Eastern and Central Europe and endanger our own long-term prosperity and stability.

    This is an historic agenda. And it is for Europe’s leaders, not its bureaucrats. The heads of government should give a stronger lead through the European Council. They should set the priorities, as they did at Copenhagen. The commission should then get on with implementing that agenda. No decision should be taken in Brussels which can better be taken at national or local level: that is the principle of subsidiarity, endorsed by all, which we need to develop.

    I believe that this would reduce the scope for friction between the commission president and member governments. The president of the commission could play a more, rather than less, important role on behalf of the Community if he were seen to be operating more clearly within a framework laid down and supported by the elected heads of government.

    The role of the other commissioners should also change. They are people of high seniority and ability. But there are already 17 of them. This is too many, if we are to find space around the commission table for new EC members.

    We must ensure that Europe has the flexibility to tackle new problems–which means acting in different ways. The Community institutions do not have a monopoly on European co-operation. For example, we should provide the impetus, through the inter-governmental provisions of the Maastricht Treaty, for more effective common mechanisms to frustrate the criminals who are no respecters of borders: drug traffickers and financial swindlers.

    People are moving more freely, with fewer formalities, around Europe than ever before. However, partly because of changes outside the Community, partly because of the Community’s expansion, Europe faces migratory pressures which were not even envisaged a few years ago. We have to find an orderly way of dealing with them, and of managing our frontiers. And we have to find answers that respect national identities and concerns.

    A Europe of nation states

    The Treaty of Rome called for union among the peoples of Europe. After a phase in which “Europe” was too narrowly defined, and the peoples were taken too much for granted, we now have the opportunity to move back towards this founding principle.

    Britain successfully used the Maastricht negotiations to reassert the authority of national governments. It is clear now that the Community will remain a union of sovereign national states. That is what its peoples want: to take decisions through their own Parliaments. That protects the way of life, the cultural differences, the national traditions which the French and Germans, the Greeks and the Danes, hold as dear as the British. If anyone still thinks the Commission’s first Maastricht blueprint was the way to go, they will have learnt nothing from experience. And they are closing their minds to the future.

    It is for nations to build Europe, not for Europe to attempt to supercede nations. I want to see the Community become a wide union, embracing the whole of democratic Europe, in a single market and with common security arrangements firmly linked to NATO. I want to see a competitive and confident Europe, generating jobs for its citizens and choice for its consumers. A Community which ceases to nibble at national freedoms, and so commands the enthusiasm of its member nations.

    Such a Community would be a more genuine and lasting European union than anything we have now. It offers peace. It promotes security. It widens free trade. It preserves and enhances infant democracies. It marches with the instincts of free people in free nations. It is an ambition for the new century that dwarfs the dreams of the founders of the Community. The Treaty of Rome is not a creed. It is an instrument. We must tune it to the times.

  • Mr Major’s Doorstep Interview after IOC Olympics Announcement – 23 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s doorstep interview, made outside Downing Street on 23rd September 1993, on the announcement of the site of the 2000 Olympics.

    QUESTION:

    How disappointed are you by the decision?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think everyone is disappointed – in the United Kingdom – the Manchester bid was a very good bid, I don’t think they could have done it better. I’m very disappointed for them. That being said I congratulate Sydney. I think they’ll provide an outstanding games.

    QUESTION:

    Do you think it’s worth having a second go?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Manchester have had a second go. The question is whether they have a third go. That’s a decision they’ll want to take. I can only say I don’t think they could have presented the bid better. They may well wish to try again.

    QUESTION:

    Would you like to see another British bid in 4 years time?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Most certainly.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, why do you think China didn’t get the Games?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    More people voted for Sydney.

    QUESTION:

    Do you think, Prime Minister, this is going to fuel Australian’s demands to become a Republic?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    No. I don’t think it will make any difference at all. I really don’t think it will make any difference. I think this ought to be seen in a sporting context; that’s where I believe it’s best placed. Sydney produced an extremely good bid as well, and on the night they won.

    QUESTION:

    Will you be going?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I very much hope so.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, what will your message be to the people of Manchester?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think my message would be they can be extremely proud of the bid Bob Scott and his colleagues put forward. Extremely proud. I think it’s given Manchester a remarkably good profile and I hope they’re not too downhearted.

  • Mr Major’s Speech in Support of Olympic Bid – 23 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech in support of the Manchester Olympics bid. The speech was given in Monte Carlo on Thursday 23rd September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Mr President and Members of the IOC:

    We are all here today in our different capacities because we care about the Olympic Games. We know it to be the greatest sporting festival in the world. You must decide where it will be and I wish to help you make that decision.

    The Millennium Games will be a unique occasion, a time of hope, optimism, the beginning of a new century, a time for looking forward, a time to bring together young people from every corner of the globe skilled in athletic achievements and striving every muscle to prove themselves the very best in the world and television will take that friendly competition before the largest sporting audience in history. I want you to see that unique occasion at that unique time in that unique city in my country, Manchester.

    The city may be Manchester, one of our great cities but this is a British bid, not just the city but the whole country stands foursquare behind it. It has the full and utter support of the Government.

    Twice in this century – in 1908 and 1948 – Britain has hosted the Games. Each time it did so at short notice to save the Games, otherwise they could not and would not have been held but my country has never been awarded the Games, never had the chance to plan for them but we hope to be able to have that chance at the turn of the century and why? Why do we want the Games in Great Britain in Manchester?
    My country has a passion for sport and it is a passion I freely confess to you that I share. Past sporting events are planted indelibly in our minds. I can close my eyes now and see the White City when Chataway went thataway and beat the seemingly invincible Vladimir Kutz; I remember that incomparable Bob Beaman leap, the Fosbury Flop, all of it across a whole range of athletics memories could close our minds and bring back pictures of the past.

    But it is not just the past; it is the anticipation of the future as well and anticipating future sporting events to me at least is one of the great pleasures of life. Scratch a Briton and you will find a sports lover. In my country, new sports are taking root, old sports are growing in popularity.

    I believe that sporting endeavour represents much of the very best of life – the will to win, the determination to compete and to finish; it is about individual efforts and team excellence; it provides drama, romance, pathos and memories. In such an environment, the Olympic Games will thrive but to do so needs more than enthusiasm, much more than simply a love of sport.

    Organising the Olympic Games is a truly massive undertaking. No-one doubts that Manchester can do that spectacularly well. It has the right communication links, the right international access, it can offer excellence in television and in communications. The sporting facilities already are superb and those still needed will be provided. Even as we speak, the construction of future Olympic facilities is under way.

    Mr. President, I spent some time at the Barcelona Games. I went there to look and to learn. Barcelona was a success for the Olympic Movement and a success for Spain and I was happy to play a small part in that in helping athletes from the former Yugoslavia to compete in those Olympics. Today, I am delighted to support the IOC in its bid for observer status at the United Nations and in its efforts to secure an Olympic truce and I do so because I want the Olympic Movement and the Games to succeed, to go as it has done from strength to strength from year to year.

    Sport binds together the best of friends and the worst of enemies but it binds them more securely than any other endeavour and the world should use that gift.

    Mr. President, Members of the IOC, you have a difficult task. I for one don’t envy you for one second in the choice that you have to make. You have candidates of high quality each wishing to host the Games in the year 2000. To do will be an immense privilege and a very great responsibility. Whatever you decide today, we will readily accept and play our part in making the Games a success. I hope you will decide to have that success in Manchester. If you do, I can promise you that a very warm welcome awaits you and I am utterly confident that a great Games lie in store.

    I am grateful to you for listening.

  • Mr Major’s Public Message to President Yeltsin – 22 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s public message to President Yeltsin, issued on 22nd September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I heard of the latest developments in Russia soon after my arrival in Kuala Lumpur, and have been following events as closely as I can from here. I am sorry that, because of my programme here, I have not so far had a chance to speak to you on the telephone.

    When we met in Tokyo two months ago, you explained your intention to bring in a new, democratic constitution following the strong backing you received in the April referendum. In calling for elections this December to a new Parliament, you are giving them the chance to have their views properly represented. This is what they voted for in the April referendum. This deserves the backing of democrats, both inside the outside Russia. I would like to assure you of our full support for your determined and courageous efforts, in the face of great difficulties, to surmount the challenges to your reform programme, and to create a democratic framework for Russia and the Russian people.

  • Mr Major’s Press Conference in Kuala Lumpur – 22 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s press conference in Kuala Lumpur, held on Wednesday 22nd September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am delighted that Jim Prior is here – he is the leader of an extremely high-powered business delegation here with me in Kuala Lumpur – and also that I have Richard Needham, the Minister for Trade, with me. Richard has worked long and hard to make sure that we are able to increase our exports and our trading relationship with Asia and he will be returning to Malaysia with a large business delegation in November to follow up the numerous openings that have been identified in various meetings today.

    I think there is no doubt that the trip has proved very fruitful with the signing this afternoon of five very important agreements. These involve potentially hundreds of millions of pounds of business for the United Kingdom. Overall at the moment business currently under discussion is worth at least a billion pounds over the forthcoming years and our current and continuing exports to Malaysia are estimated to support around 25,000 jobs. Today’s contracts of course should secure many more jobs in Britain in due course.

    I think it is worth remembering that South East Asia is one of the most rapidly-growing economies in the world and Malaysia, as a result of policies over many years, is in the forefront of that growth. We have doubled our exports to Malaysia over the last four years but I think we can and will do a good deal better.

    It is equally true to make the point that the trading relationship has expanded in the other direction with a very substantial growth of Malaysian exports to the United Kingdom.

    Within the Community, we will continue to fight very hard indeed for the vision that we have of a free, open, outward-looking Community and the relevance of that is that it will ensure that countries like Malaysia will have access to the Single Market which is worth around £350 billion even before enlargement.

    To perhaps give you a practical example in concrete terms, the Community provides a massive market for Malaysian products like the Proton car that I was able to have a look at this morning.

    I also had the opportunity of looking at the Connaught Bridge power station, a very impressive example of Rolls-Royce’s capabilities. Today, British Gas have signed an agreement for a joint venture for an even bigger power plant and the project overall is worth around £550 million. What staggered me was that the plant is expected to start producing power by the end of 1994 and that is very remarkable progress indeed – no wonder British Gas refer to it as “Project Maserati”.

    Our pursuit of business, of course, and our wider social and educational links inevitably go hand-in-hand. There are at the moment around 13,000 Malaysians studying in the United Kingdom and possibly a good deal more who have gone there privately where we don’t necessarily have an indication of the numbers. John Laings are planning to increase the number of students we can help by establishing a college of the University of London here in Kuala Lumpur and Laings are also about to construct twelve hospitals here so there is a substantial amount of work there as well.

    As we approach the end of my trip to Tokyo and Malaysia, I am absolutely certain that we were right in our decision to give greater priority to our policies relating to the Asia Pacific region. I think this trip alone demonstrates what that means in practice and what more can be achieved in the future.

    It was equally clear from my discussions this afternoon that there is a very wide range of international and bilateral issues that are of concern to both countries. In my discussions with Dr. Mahathir this afternoon, we spread very broadly our discussions and it was remarkable that we had so many areas of joint concern and interest. The primary purpose, however, of this meeting was to expand and make clear to everyone the sheer scale of the economic and trading relationship that exists between the United Kingdom and Malaysia and I will, if I may, ask Lord Prior, as leader of the business delegation, just to give his impressions of the trip and then we will be happy to take any questions you may have.

    LORD PRIOR:

    As most members of the British press will know, I am not given to sycophancy in my remarks about prime ministers but I would just like to say that I believe that the efforts made by the Prime Minister both here in Malaysia and in Japan as well and in a number of other places are an enormous help and example to British industry and I think you will find that all the industrialists who have been on both these really quite difficult tours are full of praise for the attitude of the Prime Minister and welcome enormously the efforts he, Richard Needham and others are making for British industry.

    The Prime Minister has mentioned a number of important projects and he has been, quite rightly, very conservative in the figures he has put on them. If I can just add a little to, for example, the airport, it is a British consortium which has been given the task of organising and carrying through this massive project which is a real prestige project in south-east Asia; it is the biggest single project which Malaysia has ever undertaken and which we hope will be a great credit to a nation which has made such marvellous progress in the last few years. That project, which will be carried out predominantly with Malaysian contractors and Malaysian labour but at the same time with project management and technical help from both British and Japan, will bring to Britain a large quantity of work, for example to my own company GEC Marconi it will bring at least 100 million pounds and probably more and the figure for Balfour Beatty and Trafalgar House Gannon [phonetic] will probably be in excess of something like £500 million so that alone is a very big project.

    The Prime Minister has already mentioned the two power station projects, one of which he opened this morning. Sir Desmond Pitcher of the North West Water. Board has a project that he would like to mention to you a little later on which again is a very big project and he has a press kit to hand out for those who would wish to have it.

    So altogether, Prime Minister, we think this has been a very successful tour from your point of view. You have opened a number of doors for us and it is up to British industry now to get their feet in so that they don’t close again and manage to get some very big orders. We think we will.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I will ask Sir Desmond Pitcher to take up Jim’s invitation and perhaps say a word on some other events that have occurred today.

    SIR DESMOND PITCHER:

    We formed a consortium with our Malaysian partners a few years ago to study the sewage problems in this country. We made a recommendation to the Government for a national sewage programme to provide sewage for 14 million people, which is roughly double the number of people who live in the north west of England. As a consequence of that, the Malaysian government this year have passed a special act to privatise all sewage activity and transfer responsibility of that to our company. We are in the final details of signing the so-called “Consortium Agreement” as a franchise agreement and we have to make a privatisation agreement. In effect, the capital investment for starters is 1.25 billion pounds. We have the contract for 28 years and by the time we have done the main construction work, we will have changed the whole dimension of sewage and environment in this country. We have done it of course with tremendous help from our Malaysian colleagues and more particularly all the money is coming from Malaysia with a small amount of investment in equity from our country.

     

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION (Mike Webster, ITN):

    Prime Minister, if I could first ask you a question on the international stage, today President Clinton, like yourself, has given support to President Yeltsin in Russia. However, he added a proviso that he didn’t want to see President Yeltsin use force in order to put down his opponents. Do you make the same condition, despite your support for him, that he must keep the troops….

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think there are several points to be made. Yeltsin is the first, indeed the only leader in Russian history to be elected freely. He is carrying forward a reform process, he wants a properly elected parliament that actually can express the will of the people with clarity and with a fresh mandate.

    Since President Gorbachev gave them the chance some time ago, the Russian people have consistently acted to show that they believe in the reform programme; that is the reform programme that President Yeltsin is trying to carry forward.

    We have given consistent support to the reformers. At the time of the 1991 coup, it was Britain that denounced it first and made it clear we were on the side of reform. We have made it absolutely clear right the way through that we are on the side of the reform process and the reformers will need to operate by rule of law and with parliamentary sanction so I think it is our view that we want it to proceed peaceably but let there be no doubt whatsoever that the reform process is best likely to go ahead under President Yeltsin, that he has our support and we very much hope that that will be acknowledged by people throughout Russia and the process can continue.

    QUESTION (John Sergeant, BBC):

    But how likely do you think it is that President Yeltsin will be overthrown and that Russia will revert to totalitarian rule?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Consistently in the last few years the Russian people, when asked, have acted with very considerable maturity. I don’t think there is any conceivable doubt that given the chance they will continue to act with maturity and that does mean a democratic reform process so I both hope and believe that President Yeltsin will continue and will be able to carry that reform process forward.

    I not only believe that that is very much in the interest of the Russian people; I don’t have a shred of doubt that it is very much in the interest of the rest of the world to have a stable Russia settling down as a secure democracy not just for months but for years ahead, decades ahead. That is what all of us wish to see. I believe it is achievable but I believe now is the moment for the rest of the world to make it absolutely clear that they support the continuation of this reform process and they do not support any attempts illegally to knock it off course.

    QUESTION (Richard Bestick, Sky News):

    From your remarks at lunch-time today about the rearguard Soviets, it would seem that if Mr. Yeltsin isn’t successful you would be prepared to see a return to the Cold War rather than accept a dialogue with his successors.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think I have made it clear in the past, if I may refer back to the remarks I made about the potential coup some time. Britain didn’t sit back and consider what might happen if things went wrong; we were out there first making it clear that the reform process had to continue. That is the first prize for the rest of the world. Nobody should be in any doubt about that. It is clearly our policy that it is in everybody’s interests – Britain’s, the rest of the world’s, Russia’s – for there to be the maximum amount of support for those people who will carry on the reform process and I will rest my answer on that.

    QUESTION:

    When Lady Thatcher was here about two weeks ago, she said that the situations in Iraq and in Bosnia should be treated exactly in the same manner. How does your Administration see the difference between the two situations and should they be treated differently by your Administration?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I didn’t hear what may have been said on that occasion and I am not going to comment directly on remarks I didn’t myself hear and haven’t seen in context. I think I have learned over the last ten years or so that it is very unwise to do that.

    As far as Iraq is concerned, I think the whole world remains appalled at the behaviour of Saddam Hussein. Both in the north with the Kurds and in the south in the marshlands, his attitude continues to be repressive, dictatorial and wholly repugnant to the rest of the world.

    Insofar as the UNSCOM investigations are concerned, until and unless he actually removes these weapons of mass destruction, he cannot expect in any way the sanctions to be removed so our position on that has been perfectly clear.

    On Bosnia, I think it is right for me to say that everyone shares very hot feelings – very emotional feelings – about the dreadful circumstances that have arisen in Bosnia. We were the first country to put in troops on a large scale to help the humanitarian aid. It is certainly the view of the United Nations that without the British effort it could not have continued and many thousands of lives would have been lost. We have continued to do that. We have continued to seek a peaceful process. We believe a peaceful political settlement is desirable because it is more likely to be enduring and I think that is the prize everyone wishes to seek so in Iraq we sought peace, in Bosnia we seek peace but we have to determine the way to achieve it dependent upon the individual circumstances.

    QUESTION (Philip Johnstone, Daily Telegraph):

    Prime Minister, later today you are off to Monte Carlo to bang the drum on behalf of Manchester. How confident are you that the city can win the Olympics for the year 2000 and do you think China’s human rights record disqualifies Peking from holding the Games?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I have always been concerned throughout the whole of this to promote the aims of Manchester rather than comment on the aims of other countries. I think Manchester’s bid is technically excellent. Manchester has the total support of the Government. I believe that were the Games to come to Manchester in the year 2000 they would be memorable Games matched against any we have seen in the past so I have no doubt about Manchester’s willingness or capability of producing the Games.

    As to whether they will win or not, we are now within a few hours of the 90-odd members actually making up their minds. I don’t know what individual motivations they will have in that decision. I can only say that on merit I think Manchester will be very hard to beat and I would be delighted to see them win.

    QUESTION:

    How do you see the US refusal to renegotiate the Blair House Accord reforms?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I believe if you have entered into an agreement you don’t re-open it and the European Community collectively and the United States reached an agreement on Blair House. The United Kingdom don’t want to re-open Blair House.

    QUESTION (John Craig, Daily Express):

    How is your morale at the end of the second leg of this trip? You have obviously had a lot of success with the business side of the trip over here but there are still some rumblings back home from what we hear. How is your morale tonight?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    My morale is very high, John.

    QUESTION (Reuters):

    Have you talked to President Yeltsin yet and do you intend to try before you take off tonight?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    No, I haven’t talked to him yet. We have been in touch with Moscow but I haven’t spoken to President Yeltsin yet. I think it is very likely I will over the next few days but I have had meetings continually through today, they go through till late tonight, I will then be flying off later on this evening to Nice. I think it is unlikely I will speak to him before tomorrow but I have no doubt over the next few days I will.

    QUESTION (Colin Brown, The Independent):

    Will you be suggesting any initiative that world leaders can take in addition to giving vocal support to President Yeltsin and given that his Foreign Minister in Moscow called in all the G7 ambassadors is there anything that they are asking for in addition to support, for instance financial support?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    No. The G7 ambassadors were called in so that it could be explained to them what President Yeltsin had in mind. It was a question not of asking for assistance but of passing on information.

    This is a matter that is going to be determined within Russia but I think the role of other countries around the world is to make it clear what they believe is the right thing to happen and we have done that and a large number of other countries have as well; I hope more will.

    QUESTION:

    Sir, you said earlier that the UK was not likely to allow a renegotiation of the Blair House Accord but France has managed to get the EC to open further discussion on the Blair House Accord. How does the UK feel about this?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is outside Blair House. It is not a question of renegotiating what was agreed at Blair House. It was agreed there are other areas outside Blair House that people can look at it but it isn’t a renegotiation of the agreement that was reached at Blair House.

    QUESTION (Stephen Cook, Financial Times):

    Dr. Mahathir made a very strong speech last night about Bosnia in particular. Were you surprised at the strength of Malaysia’s feeling on Bosnia and were you able to reassure him at all in your private discussions today or what was your feeling of the Malaysian policy today during your private discussions?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I don’t think anyone can be surprised about the fact that people across the world have an emotional feeling about what is happening in Bosnia, that impact exists in the United Kingdom as well. Certainly, Dr. Mahathir and I discussed the matter and I think we both have a very clear understanding of each other’s position.

    QUESTION:

    On Bosnia, do you think that the ball is at the Bosnian Muslims’ feet now that the three factions have agreed to give them some kind of an outlet to the sea?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think an outlet to the sea is needed perhaps at Flotje [phonetic]. I don’t see immediately where else it would be. I think there will need to be an outlet to the sea in the negotiations but I think the responsibility for reaching a conclusion rests not just with the Muslims but of course with each of the groups. What we have seen over a number of occasions in the last few months is putative agreements that have been broken very shortly after they have been entered into. We need all sides to reach an agreement, they need to stick to the agreement.

  • Mr Major’s Speech in Kuala Lumpur – 22 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech in Kuala Lumpur, made on Wednesday 22nd September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Honourable Ministers, Distinguished. Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. I am very grateful to the Minister of Finance, Anwar Ibrahim, for coming to this lunch today and for speaking and to so many of his Ministerial colleagues for accepting our invitation in what I know is a very busy Cabinet day for all of them,

    Before turning to matters close at hand, bilateral matters, trading matters, I think I should say something about events in Russia over the last 24 hours. Anwar, you spoke a moment ago about the collapse of communism, and what happens in Russia affects all of us because Russia stretches from central Europe, across Asia to the Pacific, because as a Permanent Member of the Security Council, Russia is involved in all the most critical international problems, whether it is the Middle East, Bosnia or Cambodia,

    The changes began in the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev and they were carried into a new phase by Boris Yeltsin as President of Russia. They were remarkable changes, they generated hope and expectation far beyond Russia’s boundaries.

    But I do not think that we should be surprised that this immense transformation has proved erratic and difficult, it has demanded high courage from the reformers within Russia and steady nerves from their supporters on the outside.

    I believe those of us outside need to keep a clear view of what we are supporting and why we are supporting it. The United Kingdom wants to see democracy securely founded in Russia under a democratic constitution providing for the rule of law and the rights of the individual. We believe that authoritarian communist rule in the Soviet Union was both morally wrong and hugely damaging, it wasted the resources of a rich and proud nation and ruined its economy over many generations.

    In the referendum in April the people of Russia gave President Yeltsin a clear mandate to complete democratic reform. Under that mandate and of the first popularly elected President of Russia he has been seeking to bring in a new constitution. His political opponents, entrenched in a parliament elected under Soviet rule, have fought a rear guard action to block the people’s will and paralyse reform.

    President Yeltsin now intends to call parliamentary elections in December, leading to the adoption by a new parliament of a new constitution. His opponents are evidently not prepared to put their credentials to the test. I believe passionately that the Russian people should have the right to decide themselves, I believe this will be a vital step to underpin reform. I believe they should be allowed to elect a genuinely democratic and representative parliament and that is why I believe President Yeltsin is right, that is why I believe he deserves all our continuing support, and it was for that reason that earlier today I sent him a message making it clear that he continues to have the full and unqualified support of the United Kingdom.

    Russia, of course, is but one of the subjects I look forward to discussing with Dr Mahatir and his colleagues during the rest of this afternoon and this evening. We will have a busy agenda: developments in Asia; former Yugoslavia we shall certainly discuss; the Middle East; as well as the crucially important Uruguay Round negotiations. All of these matters are vital to all free democratic nations and will be the legitimate matter for our discussions this afternoon.

    But at lunchtime today in the presence of so many Ministers with economic responsibilities, and of so many leading British and Malaysian figures from the business world, I want to turn particularly to our longstanding and growing economic partnership.

    We share a belief, we British and Malaysians, a belief in free trade. We in Britain have worked for the completion within the European Community of the Single European Market. I think I can say without a shred of over-exaggeration that we in Britain are the leading free traders in Western Europe. We have worked assiduously for an outward looking, open and competitive European Community and we shall continue to do so.

    And here in Malaysia you with your partners have been progressing towards the ASEAN free trade area. Each of our countries has benefited from business which has boosted two-way trade between us to over 1.5 billion pounds each and every year, and for British investment in Malaysia to around 2 billion pounds. Both countries have been pioneers of privatisation within their own continents. Malaysia has pursued, it is continuing to pursue, that ambitious and exciting privatisation programme and I know that you plan to go even further.

    In Britain during the period of the last decade or so we have released 46 separate companies with a total value of 50 billion pounds into private ownership. Many of them in the public sector did not make profits and did not deliver much of a service, now they do make profits and they yield taxes towards the provision of communal services and I believe they deliver a far better service as well.

    And so we are seeing the benefits of better management, better services and increased profitability. And I make that point because no less than 7 of the businessmen accompanying me here today are the heads of former nationalised, now private sector companies British Aerospace, British Gas, Cable and Wireless, the National Grid Company, North West Water, PowerGen, Rolls Royce all highly successful competitive companies with a rising international reputation.

    North West Water, for example, took part in EPO in the world’s first water privatisation project.. The Rolls Royce industrial power group has completed the conversion of the Connaught Bridge Power Station which I had the pleasure and privilege of visiting this morning. And British Aerospace has been one of the companies helping to meet Malaysia’s need for defence equipment over many years. Other companies represented here today are equally effective. Bywater, with the Apamur [phon] Dam, has helped the national rural water supply scheme. I remember. Bywater, getting on for nearly a quarter of a century ago when I think I had the pleasure of agreeing almost one of the first banking loans they ever had, and if I had realised how good they would be and how they would have grown I would have agreed to that loan far more speedily and on far better terms than I did. Balfour Beatty and GEC have been building the Pergau Hydro Power Station and these two companies, with Trafalgar House and Gammon, are partners in the British/Japanese consortium on the new Kuala Lumpur international airport.

    Those are remarkable projects and yet these projects are just a part of the successful modern, growing, relationship, a relationship that has flourished and continues to flower as year succeeds year.

    But they are part also of something else as well, part also of a wider picture of dynamic economic growth in Asia, matched by a stronger political voice and widening influence in international affairs.

    Britain’s links with Asia are very old, they go back over 4 centuries. But it is not over the past that I think we should dwell, and even necessarily entirely the present, what we need to do is to look to the future rather than to the past and as we do so we are determined to strengthen and deepen our involvement in your region, our relationship politically and our relationship economically as well.

    I remarked yesterday on the pace of change in Malaysia in the 20 years or so since my first visit. I find it astonishing to contemplate the Malaysia I saw when I first came here in the 1970s and to see today the immense changes towards an industrial society that have been created during the period of those two decades, they are truly remarkable changes of which I believe Malaysia can be justly proud.

    But Britain too has changed during that period, through our membership of the European Community we have widened our economic base. Many overseas companies, rightly, see the United Kingdom as the most convenient and effective centre for the whole of their European operations. We have restructured our industry, the City of London has adopted the most sophisticated techniques to remain in the forefront of the world’s financial centres, we have become both more cosmopolitan and more competitive. And as we emerge from the recession that has engulfed so much of the western industrial world and many areas beyond it, as we emerge from that we find ourselves perhaps better placed for increased competitiveness than we have found ourselves for almost two decades.

    You will, I hope, here in Malaysia experience this competitiveness in your dealings with the companies represented here today, But I hope also that you will find that the values we respect are the same, and it is shared values, apart from shared interests in free trade, the shared values – integrity, a sense of responsibility, that basic underpinning of an attachment to democracy and the rule of law – those are elements of our twin relationship that have grown and continue to grow year upon year.

    I believe those are the essence of the partnership, quite apart from the mutual business interests that we share, those are the essence of the partnership and friendship between Britain and Malaysia that have enabled it to grow out of a colonial past into a modern industrial partnership.

    I am delighted therefore to be here today, I look forward to my discussions later today. I am delighted to have brought with me this remarkable delegation of senior businessmen, most of whom find already are by no means new to this market but are meeting many old friends with whom they have had a longstanding relationship. I wish them well in their bilateral discussions, I believe their mutual success is in the interests of Malaysia and in the interests of the United Kingdom and it is that mutual success and that mutual relationship that I hope for and that we must all work for, and I am delighted to have had the opportunity of being here today to express that thought to all of you.

  • Mr Major’s Doorstep Interview at Kuala Lumpur – 21 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s doorstep interview held in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday 21st September 1993.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, they seem to have made a little bit of progress at the Jumbo meeting, do you think we are now looking at a fast track deal being ready for 15 December?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think it was a very satisfactory outcome in Brussels, very satisfactory indeed. It means the Commission can continue to negotiate without any special fetters, it means the Blair House deal is not going to be reopened and we are on track for a 15 December settlement.

    QUESTION:

    Do you think there are still dangers that the French could still scupper the deal?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I would not put it in those terms, I think there are many difficult decisions still to be made and no-one should doubt that the French have difficult internal problems. But I think what they know, and everybody else knows, is that whilst a success will be very good news indeed, the price of failure would be very high for all of us.

  • Mr Major’s Speech in Kuala Lumpur – 21 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech made in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday 21st September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Prime Minister, Mrs Mahatir, Honourable Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen.

    I think I speak for everyone this evening, Prime Minister, in thanking you for your hospitality here this evening, you are very kindly entertaining us this evening and it is an evening, I know, that many of us have looked forward to for a very long time. I do not propose to repay your kind hospitality by an over lengthy speech, but I will try to respond to some of the points you have made and make one or two other points that seem to me of importance in our bilateral relationship.

    You spoke a few moments ago in your remarks about the Uruguay Round about the vital importance of achieving a satisfactory settlement of the world trade talks. The United Kingdom have taken the view from the outset: that if we are to see the re-engendering of confidence in the world trade outlook there is no single event more likely to produce it than the widening of free trade and a satisfactory conclusion of the Uruguay Round.

    That is the position we have firmly and consistently maintained within the European Community and I know there have been some concerns over the difficulties between the United States and the European countries on the subject of agriculture. I think the meeting that concluded not all that many hours ago in Brussels has made it perfectly clear that the Blair House accords cannot be reopened, the Community negotiators are now going to return unfettered to continue their negotiations and I believe we remain on track for a satisfactory outcome to the Uruguay Round by 15 December this year.

    The prize of success in that round is very great but I think it has to be recognised by every participant in the round, from whatever part of the world that they come from, that the price of failure in that round would also potentially be very great indeed. It is in no-one’s interest to see that failure, no-one’s interest to see free trade begin to shrivel, no-one’s interest to see the dangers of protection and retaliation, all of which potentially could occur if we did not have a satisfactory outcome to the Uruguay Round. I can give you a total assurance about the position that the United Kingdom will adopt.

    Prime Minister, you also mentioned the very distressing problem of Bosnia, a problem I think that has touched the heart, I know, of Malaysia and has touched the heart of my country as well. I would say to you, Prime Minister, that I and my Cabinet feel as strongly about the wickedness and the intolerance that we see daily in Bosnia, and have for some time, as anyone else. We have taken over the last year or so a whole range of practical steps to assist that on many occasions have led, not just the West, but I think the whole world in the actions we have taken. We sent at a very early stage, before I think anyone else, a substantial number of British troops to Bosnia to make sure that the humanitarian aid was securely delivered. I think it is fair to say that if we had not taken that action a year or so ago there are many tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Bosnians alive today who would not have been alive but for the voluntary aid effort and the activities of the British troops there.

    We are seeking, by the convening of the London Conference, a satisfactory outcome that is not going to lead just to a short term cessation of fighting followed by a reignition of the conflict at a later stage, it is with the intention of avoiding the misery that would follow that outcome that we have been so determined to try and seek a satisfactory political settlement.

    We have looked repeatedly at what action can be taken bilaterally with the United Kingdom and Bosnia, multilaterally with our partners in the Community, and on a wider sphere through the United Nations and others, and I am delighted at the fact that Malaysia will also be sending a contingent to join us in the United Nations protection forces. I look forward to discussing this problem with you further in our discussions tomorrow.

    It seems to me this evening a long time since I first came to Malaysia. It was indeed in the early 1970s and I recall it very vividly. I remember visiting – though I can’t recall precisely where it was – a fish restaurant at a lakeside that had a remarkable marketing appeal; you ordered your fish, you sat there and they rowed out on the lake and they caught it. It had a strong marketing appeal for this reason: you ordered your fish, you then waited and you became very hungry; By the time the fish arrived, you really enjoyed it and after you had eaten it, by golly, you told everyone how good that meal was and I am unsurprised that that restaurant was packed out month after month after month.

    Later I came as Foreign Minister to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Tonight, I come for the first time as Prime Minister for us to have some bilateral discussions here in Kuala Lumpur and I. think one thing unites those visits across now more than 20 years; it is always a pleasure to step off the plane in Kuala Lumpur, to land among friends both old and new and to be in a particularly lovely country but one thing changes, one thing is always different – from one visit to the next at a truly breathtaking speed Malaysia changes. It may be a truism to say that Malaysia is one of the most dynamic countries in the world’s fastest-growing region but the point about truisms is that they do tend to be true and this makes Malaysia an invariably exciting country to visit.

    You, Prime Minister, have presided over a remarkable process of modernisation since you took the reins in 1981, a process that has seen manufacturing rise to two-thirds of your export earnings. You are well on the way to the target you set in your approach to Malaysia’s future “Vision 2020” and I look forward to seeing myself tomorrow one of the jewels in your industrial crown, the one you mentioned, the Proton car plant. I of course know its products already and I believe that the company sells more of its models in Britain than to any other country anywhere in the world.

    Of course, as any visitors to the great manufacturing areas of my own country can bear witness, there is often a heavy price to be paid for industrial growth but I believe Malaysia has succeeded in modernising without losing her charm and in fact quite the reverse, you are now attracting more tourists than ever; thousands of Britons come here for pleasure as well as for business; I come, I am delighted to say, for both and many of them like Prince and Princess Michael of Kent will now be following your example by taking a ride on the Eastern and Oriental Express.

    So the flow is two ways and just as Norma and I and Richard Needham, who is with us this evening, are accompanied by a team of eminent businessmen whom you have kindly invited to join you this evening, so Malaysian businessmen are ever-present and ever-welcome in the United Kingdom and so too – for you also touched upon this point – are your younger generation. We are proud and delighted that so many thousands of Malaysians are choosing to further their education and training in the United Kingdom. It gives us a unique part, I believe, to play in the building of your future and it means, I hope, that in that famous year 2020 British politicians and British businessmen will find themselves surrounded by old and good friends just as we do this evening.

    I hope those young Malaysians and the British friends they are making will grow up as strong supporters of a modern Commonwealth but the Commonwealth also has changed and Malaysia has been influential in that process of change. You have just played host to the Commonwealth Forestry Conference and I understand and am unsurprised to hear that it was a very great success. In a month’s time, you and I will join over 40 other friends in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Cyprus and five years from now Kuala Lumpur will play host to the friendliest of all international tournaments, the Commonwealth Games and yet the Commonwealth, in some curious fashion rather like the British constitution, has always been hard to define; you know it is there, you know its importance; it is not an alliance, it is not an economic community; it is not a political bloc; it is not a geographical entity. It is a good deal easier to say what the Commonwealth is not than actually to set out what the Commonwealth is and it may be baffling to outsiders but I think that you and I know the answer to that. It is above all a network of friends. What happens outside our Commonwealth meetings, be they of foresters or lawyers or finance ministers, matters as much as the proceedings within those Commonwealth meetings. You meet a colleague, you don’t need much introduction; you speak the same language metaphorically as well as literally; you know that if you have a problem some time down the road you can pick up the phone and seek his advice or seek his help. You won’t always agree – that is not necessarily a part of the Commonwealth as we both know – you won’t always have the same approach but you should always retain that indefinable element of personal friendship that is so distinctive to the Commonwealth and so difficult to find in any other international organisation.

    So may I this evening very sincerely thank you for greeting us in that spirit of friendship. You don’t need me to tell you, I hope, that you and Mrs. Mahathir and all your colleagues will always be greeted in precisely the same spirit whenever you come to London. You mentioned at the outset of your remarks that relations between my country and Malaysia are in such good shape. In our discussions perhaps over dinner this evening and certainly tomorrow, I know that we will both work hard to keep them that way. It is a longstanding tradition we have, it is a tradition we cherish, it is a tradition I look forward to building upon so perhaps I may invite all your guests this evening also to join me in proposing, Prime Minister, a toast to you and Mrs. Mahathir and friendship between the United Kingdom and Malaysia.

  • Mr Major’s Joint Press Conference with Japanese Prime Minister – 20 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint press conference with the Japanese Prime Minister, Morihiro Hosokawa, given on Monday 20th September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER HOSOKAWA:

    I and Prime Minister Major had very candid discussions together with other representatives of Great Britain for a couple of hours and it is indeed a great honour that we have been able to welcome Prime Minister Major as the first: prime minister to visit as an official guest after I assumed the post of Prime Minister and I therefore express my warmest welcome to him.

    We covered the entire ground of our bilateral relations and discussed important themes for both of us and we reaffirmed the importance of our bilateral relations for each of us, We have seen the growth historically of very good relations between our two countries politically, economically as well as culturally and we both agreed that we must together work to further bring these relations to a mature state.

    In the economic sphere, “Opportunity Japan” and then its successor campaign “Priority Japan” are under way and we agreed that we must continue to promote such campaigns in order to bring our trade relations to a better balance of expanded two-way trade.

    We also agreed that early next year in January we shall hold a Japan-UK 2000 Conference with an eye towards the opening of a new era between Japan and Great Britain and I should like to have Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Hata attend that symposium if at all possible and deliver a keynote address together with Foreign Secretary Hurd. I also expressed my hope – and in fact I think we agreed that there shall be a regular Foreign Ministers meeting of our two countries at that time.

    Furthermore, in order to promote interchanges between our two countries at the intellectual level, we agreed to carry out an exchange of young diplomats between Japan and Great Britain and at the same time we confirmed that we shall together make an effort to achieve a successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round of the GATT talks before the end of the year.

    As far as the former prisoner of war question is concerned, I did confirm that legally, at the government-to-government level, this question has been settled but I took this opportunity to once again express my deep remorse as well as apologies for the fact that Japanese past actions had inflicted deep wounds on many people including former prisoners of war.

    Last but not least, we also saw eye-to-eye that we together must make an effort to make our bilateral relations even more mature with an eye set on the future and I believe that our talks today have been very meaningful and useful..

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    I won’t add a very great deal to what the Prime Minister has had to say except to say they were extremely useful talks and to touch briefly on one or two of the most important points amongst them.

    In his remarks, the Prime Minister spoke of a mature relationship between our two countries. I think that is exactly right. A close and friendly relationship has developed over the past fifteen years and it continues to develop both at an economic and at a political level. I think this first official visit is very well-timed; it has enabled Mr. Hosokawa and me to get to know one another. He is of course an old friend of the United Kingdom; he made a number of visits to Britain as a member of the UK-Japan 2000 Group but it is nonetheless valuable to develop a personal relationship.

    We spent some time discussing the Uruguay Round and related trade issues. I won’t go into all the technical details of those discussions except to say they were extremely useful and I set out the British approach to today’s Joint Council in Brussels. The Prime Minister set out the bilateral initiatives we have agreed today and I think there is nothing to add to that except in one respect: I think the UK-Japan New Century scholarship is a remarkably innovative idea and I would like to express my gratitude to the private sector British companies who sponsored the initiative; it will enable a number of Japanese post-graduate students to attend Oxford and I think that will be a matter of great help to both our countries.

    We discussed at some length the important trading and investment relationship between our two countries and the advantage that we both saw in continuing that: We touched on a range of international issues – China, the United Nations, Russia, the Middle East and political and economic reform in Japan.

    As the Prime Minister indicated a few moments ago, during our discussions I did make plain the strong feelings that exist in Britain about the issue of the former British prisoners of war. I said that very great interest had been aroused by Mr. Hosokawa’s formal expression of profound remorse and apology for Japanese actions during World War II. The Prime Minister said he wished to reiterate those sentiments to all those in Britain who suffered as a result of Japanese conduct. We noted that the question of compensation had legally been settled by the San Francisco Peace Treaty. I told Mr. Hosokawa that if in future the Japanese government contemplated taking steps to redress the matter, it would be necessary for the situation of those concerned in Britain to be fully taken into account. I informed Mr. Hosokawa that we were also examining whether non-governmental measures would assist in solving this problem. Both of us thought that this approach was worth examining. While we recognised that immediate solutions were not possible, we agreed to keep closely in touch about this matter and contact will therefore continue.

    The final word I wish to add before we take any questions you may have for a few moments is to say how much I welcome the initiative of holding the Japan-United Kingdom Conference in London in January 1994, We commissioned a certain amount of work for that Conference and I think it will prove to be an important landmark in our closer relationship but I think now, with the Prime Minister’s consent, we might be able to take a few questions.

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION (Colin Brown, The Independent):

    Mr. Major, Mr. Hosokawa has said that he thinks that being in power for more than ten years breeds corruption. Do you think that after fourteen years in power it would be healthy for the Conservatives to have a spell in opposition?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Neither healthy for the Conservatives nor the country.

    QUESTION:

    In Japan, for the first time in 38 years, we now have a new coalition government with an end to a one-party monopoly by the Liberal Democratic Party and I wonder how, Prime Minister Major, you assess the political change in this country?

    Secondly, having met the new Prime Minister here, Mr. Hosokawa, what are your personal impressions?

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    On the first point, it is not for any foreign politician to comment in too great detail about Japan’s government or Japan’s internal system, I can only say I have had very pleasant and cordial relationships with successive Japanese Prime Ministers and I have absolutely no doubt after today’s meeting that I will have pleasant and cordial relationships with Mr. Hosokawa and his government and I wish them and Japan every success in the political reforms upon which they are embarked.

    CHARLES WRIGHT:

    [Very indistinct but question regarding remarks of one of the businessmen accompanying the Prime Minister saying that the continuing doubt regarding the Prime Minister’s position was undermining the mission and making life difficult for the mission. Could the Prime Minister comment?]

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I made my views about that clear yesterday and I don’t see any particular need to reiterate them, I am concerned in making sure that this is a success. You must take your own samples but I suspect very strongly that if you talk to any of the senior businessmen who are here on the trip they are finding it a very worthwhile occasion. I think it is proving itself to be a success and I hope that will be their verdict at the end of our discussions here.

    QUESTION:

    There is much talk about what Japan might seek in the United Nations General Assembly that has just started with regard to a possible indication of its willingness to become a permanent member of the Security Council and that sort of thing. To date, Britain has not shown a forthcoming attitude on this question regarding Japan or the Federal Republic and I wonder what your current stance is on that issue and whether this matter was discussed in your meeting today?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Yes, we did discuss it today and I set out the British position fairly comprehensively at a speech over luncheon. I think the prime concern we have is to make sure that the United Nations works effectively. There is now a debate about reform proceedings and as that proceeds I have no doubt that in one form or another Japan will be a beneficiary of that particular debate but the primary concern that we have had right the way through is to ensure the continuing efficiency of the United Nations, not to hold back reform either in the interest of Germany or Japan or anybody else. We are content with the debate about reform; we think it will come to a conclusion but as that debate proceeds – and I think Japan will benefit from that debate very materially – we must all the time have in mind the efficiency of the United Nations operation itself.

    QUESTION:

    Do you agree with your Chancellor, Kenneth Clarke, that your Government is still in a dreadful hole and if you do, how are you going to get out of it?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think you only have a partial quote from what the Chancellor of the Exchequer said. The Chancellor of the Exchequer made it clear we were now backing growth, that we would have the largest growth in the European Community this year and I strongly suspect the Chancellor shares my view that we will have the largest growth in the European Community next year. The point about the hole is that we are on our way out of it!

    QUESTION:

    [Indistinct but regarding whether Primo Minister Hosokawa, when he discussed the Uruguay Round, discussed the threatened French veto regarding the Blair House Agreement]

    PRIME MINISTER HOSOKAWA:

    We did in fact discuss matters related to the Blair House Agreement, In that connection, I might say that every country has its own difficult issues, especially the agricultural issue, and we mutually reaffirmed the need for efforts by all of us to override these difficulties and bring the Uruguay Round talks to a successful conclusion.