The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Category: 1993

  • 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.

  • Mr Major’s Speech in Tokyo – 20 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech made in Tokyo to the Nikkeiren Economic Organisation on Monday 20th September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is a very honour to speak today to this distinguished audience and a very great pleasure to be back in Tokyo. I was last here only ten weeks ago for the Group of Seven Summit and I am delighted to have the opportunity of returning so soon.

    A western traveller many years ago in 1876 arriving in Japan was impressed. It was, he said: “Like mental oxygen to look upon and breathe in a unique civilisation like that of Japan.”

    “Mental oxygen” is a good phrase; it suggests a new way of seeing things, a new way of doing things. What was true at the start of the Meiji era is true at the start of the Heisei era. Every European who visits Japan sees the world and his place in it in a different light.

    We approach challenges in a different way. British mountaineers were the first to conquer the Eiger in Switzerland navigating a complex ascent along ridges and up gulleys. Japanese mountaineers were the first to climb the Eiger vertically; it took years of preparation; the ascent took exceptional teamwork and exceptional patience; nobody had ever thought of that approach before.

    Similarly daunting challenges are facing Japan and Britain today. We will go about tackling them in different ways but we will both be determined to tackle them head on.

    Perhaps the foremost challenge in Japan today is political. I have the greatest respect for Prime Minister Hosokawa and what he and his government have set out to achieve. Like any elected politician, he believes fervently in parliamentary democracy. I welcome any effort to keep politics in direct touch with the wishes of the electorate; it is an aspect in government which some in Europe in the last few years have sometimes underestimated.

    But today I want to talk about the purpose of my visit to Japan. I want to seize the opportunity to inject new energy into Britain and Japan’s partnership; I want to extend it into new areas and I want it to become a true strategic partnership.

    Already we are in close in touch about the great international issues. We are both strong supporters of the Middle East peace process; Britain and Japan are both ready to help follow-up in the historic accord between the PLO and Israel; we have worked together as part of the successful United Nations operation in Cambodia and tackled together the threats to our, planet’s environment.

    I warmly welcome Japan’s growing involvement in the maintenance of international peace and security. The world needs not only your financial contributions but also your peacekeepers and a confident political voice. I know there is keen interest in Japan in the United Nations Security Council. The effectiveness of the Council must be paramount but if there were to be consensus on enlargement I have no doubt that Japan, by virtue of its global interests, its contribution to international security and its contribution to United Nations peacekeeping, could undertake the full range of responsibilities of a permanent member and should certainly benefit.

    One of your great reformers last century wrote:

    “When I was twenty I knew that men were linked together in one province. When I was thirty I knew that men were linked together in one nation. When I was forty I knew that men were linked together in one world of five continents.”

    That encapsulates well, I believe, the spirit that we need today.

    We need the closest possible contact between our two peoples. Two great cultural festivals – UK90 in Japan and the remarkably successful Japan Festival 1991 in Britain – have brought our two peoples together. Sumo and karaoke are now as well known in London as Gary Lineker is in Tokyo but I want to do a good deal more.

    I am therefore delighted to announce that a new scholarship programme called “The UK-Japan New Century Scholarship” is being set up for your best students at Oxford, our great university. Mr. Hosokawa and I will announce a high-level conference in London in January on Japan-British relations. Tomorrow, I will meet some of the British and Japanese scientists who are already working together and next week the British Minister for Science will visit Japan to look at the scope for deepening that important scientific cooperation.

    On this visit to Japan I have brought with me twelve of our most senior businessmen whose companies without exception are all taking a strategic approach to this market. We now sell more here than to any country outside Europe and North America. British direct investment in Japan now approaches 3 billion dollars, half of it made in the last two years. That is good but we aim to do much better. Japanese companies – your companies – have invested heavily in Britain. In doing so, you have changed the way we work. The Nissan plant in Sunderland is now their most efficient in the world. Our car components industry has performed so well Toyota has brought forward its target date to achieve 80 per cent local content by six months.

    We work hard in the market and we welcome you into ours. That is not always a popular policy. We need your cooperation if we are to show critics that this positive, open policy is, as I profoundly believe it to be, the right policy.

    I am therefore delighted by the emphasis which Mr. Hosokawa is putting on deregulation and on structural reform. I hope that his government will also move decisively to stimulate domestic demand; that would help trade and help living standards and I think it would bring benefits to the peoples of both countries.

    I hope you will also be able to take other measures to open your markets. You surely have no need now for tax discrimination against imported spirits; it cannot be in your best interests to maintain lingering barriers in other sectors, including financial services. British companies should have every opportunity to compete on equal terms for large contracts in sectors like aerospace. The Keidenren has issued some very welcome guidelines on open purchasing and I am sure more Japanese companies will apply them internationally and I welcome that unreservedly.

    For over a decade, the British Government has pioneered deregulation and open economic policies. My predecessor, Margaret Thatcher, began to reshape the British economy by revitalising old and sleepy public monopolies and opening them up to competition. Sixty per cent of what were in 1979 public corporations are now privately owned; they employ almost one million people. During the Eighties, we were the world’s second-largest overseas investor; many of those investments come from those giant British companies freed from the shackles of nationalisation.

    European economies like your own have been going through turbulent times; currency crisis and recession have hit us all. But Britain is among the first to find its way out of the gloom, Inflation is staying low, well below the European average and we intend to keep it that way. Our economy is growing again and GDP is forecast to continue on an upward path. Industrial production is up. GDP and retail sales are up, productivity is up, very sharply up indeed. Unemployment is still too high but has come down this year. The tough decisions that we took are now paying off and recovery is proceeding across a broad front.

    Other European economies will follow; there is light ahead at the end of this recessionary tunnel but this must not, I believe, be the blinding light of excess ambition. The countries of the European Community must learn from their mistakes and not forget their mistakes. The fault lines in the Exchange Rate Mechanism produced a salutary shock. Of course we should seek ways of promoting economic convergence and greater currency stability in Europe and beyond but we should not believe that the creation of institutions or the declaration of grand intentions will produce miracles. The Community must proceed at a pace which carries the support of Europe’s 370 million people. We must welcome new members to the Community when they are ready to join it. We must take account of the national identity, old cultures and proudly-held traditions of all of Europe’s members. We must build on our strengths trade, the rule of law, democracy – recognising that the Community is the best instrument we have for securing the peace and the prosperity of Europe.

    The European Community should do well what it can do. We strongly supported the creation of the Single Market. We insisted that it be an outward-looking creation. We must make sure it works from Sicily to Scotland. We insisted that cars produced in Japanese-owned factories in Britain enjoy the same access to the market as any other European cars.

    Mr. Chairman, the European Community must also help negotiate a global agreement on trade – the Uruguay Round of GATT, European Ministers meet later today in Brussels to coordinate their position but it is the Commission of the EC – in the person of Sir Leon Brittan – which negotiates on our behalf. We have full confidence in the Commission in this important task and we believe they should be left free to get on and negotiate a settlement.

    An agreement would inject a powerful stimulus into the world economy as markets enlarge and opportunities to trade at lower prices open up. That means growth in our economies, it means growth in jobs. It is hard to make precise calculations of the effects but respectable estimates put the extra income generated in the hundreds of billions of dollars. That growth will happen without the inflationary pressures which come with just about any other form of stimulus; there will be millions of new jobs.

    There are of course still seductive voices urging us in the wrong direction, preaching trade regional blocs. The GATT deal is too difficult, they suggest; it runs against the interests of our citizens, they suggest; our citizens need increased protection, not increased exposure, they say; our cultures, our social traditions are at stake, they say.

    I must say to this luncheon today that those voices are wrong and those voices are dangerous. Protectionism provokes retaliation and escalation; it leads to trade disputes and politicises economic relations; it acts as a hidden tax, raising prices and with them wage pressures; it handicaps efficient producers by raising their costs.

    Peter Sutherland, the GATT Director-General, wants a deal in December. So does Britain. So, I hope and believe, does every one in this room today and I hope that feeling is extended right across the five continents.

    Britain’s partnership with Japan is a key relationship; it works well and it will continue to do so. Japan also lies at the heart of our strategy towards the most dynamic region in the world. Japan has shown the way, through its enterprise and the industry of its people, to a new regional prosperity. Asia as a whole is enjoying spectacular economic growth, old controls are being abandoned, market based freedoms introduced.

    This growth is being translated into new and burgeoning markets, into flourishing two-way trade and investment, into a new weight for Asia in world markets for capital and equity. Economic and social development are leading in turn to greater diversity in people’s lives, to increased choice, to more open and more democratic societies.

    Political voice comes from economic choice. From South Korea to Thailand, people are gaining more say in their own government. The trend is unstoppable, as it has been elsewhere in the world; it is natural, it is right and it will underpin stability; stability founded on the rule of law – civil law as much as criminal law. In a democratic society, no-one can be above the law.

    All this adds up to a substantial shift in the balance of global forces. Asia is acquiring a greater capacity, a greater will to shape the issues on the world political and economic agenda. Asian countries are increasingly involved in United Nations peacekeeping not only in Cambodia but also further afield. Asian governments increasingly discuss among themselves and with their partners the sources of potential instability in the region as well as its potential for nuclear and conventional proliferation. New regional frameworks for economic and security dialogue have been born.

    We in Britain acknowledge the importance of these perspectives and developments. Britain has long been present and active in Asia. The first Englishman arrived in Japan nearly 400 years ago, took a Japanese wife and was in part responsible for the creation of the Japanese navy; other British citizens were already trading and exporting nearly everywhere else in Asia.

    Today, we have a wealth of traditional connections with Asian countries, ties of sentiment, language, cultures and blood. History has, for example, given Britain a special responsibility for Hong Kong. Our aim is to ensure that Hong Kong’s success will continue into the new century founded on the concept of “one country, two systems” and underpinned by representative government and the rule of law. I know it is well understood here in Japan how important a role Hong Kong has to play in the region’s future prosperity.

    History is therefore what you make of it. I am proud of all we have built on our forefathers’ fascination with Asia; the legacy goes well beyond commercial success. There is the excellence of Asian students at British universities; the curiosity of our young people – nearly 700 are here for example on the Japan English Teachers Scheme; the impact which the BBC World Service Television has made in Asia and I am pleased that it is coming to Japan next April.

    We are today determined to give Asia a new place in our national priorities; we plan to deepen our involvement and our presence in Asia.

    First, we seek a closer political dialogue with Asian governments. I have spoken of the breadth and excellence of our exchanges with Japan. We also welcome moves to establish new regional frameworks for economic and security dialogue; we are ready to contribute to that dialogue in any way which would be helpful.

    Second, we are seeking a still stronger commercial presence. Already in the Asia Pacific region Britain is the largest European investor, the largest European exporter of invisibles, the second-largest European exporter of goods. We shall do even better in future.

    Finally, we are seeking, Mr. Chairman, fuller cooperation with Asian countries as they join us in tackling regional and global problems. We believe that our membership of the key international organisations, our military expertise and our experience of conflict resolution well qualify us to help. Your Ambassador in London was kind enough to publish an article praising our diplomatic skills – perhaps partly as evidence of his own diplomatic skill in observing that in his host country! But we do believe that we can help Asia as Asia helps the rest of the world.

    But there is no doubt that the problems of this small world increasingly affect us all in Asia and in Europe. Who, I wonder, one hundred years ago here in Tokyo would have thought how important peace in the Middle East would be to Japanese business? Common problems demand common responses: British people and Japanese people together in the United operation in Cambodia, together in car factories in Britain, together in finance houses in the City of London and together in aid projects in Africa.

    Not unnaturally, we can come at the same problem from different angles. Europeans and Asians have always done that but I think as we do so, we produce better solutions for it. If you look at an object with one eye, you can see it clearly but with no sense of perspective; only with two eyes can the real shape of things be understood. I believe that together we can combine the best of two worlds and start the twenty-first century in good shape and in increasing friendship and it is therefore, Mr. Chairman, with that in mind that I would also, if I may, invite this distinguished audience to join me in a toast; it is a simple toast but a heartfelt toast and I hope you will feel able to join it. The toast, Mr. Chairman, is simply this:

    Good relations between the United Kingdom and Japan; may they remain good and improve! Relations between the United Kingdom and Japan [Applause].

  • Mr Major’s Press Conference in Tokyo – 20 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s press conference in Tokyo, held on Monday 20th September 1993.

    QUESTION (Sanke Newspaper):

    It is indeed a great honour for me to ask the first question. My question is as follows. There are discussions to reform the UN Security Council and for Japan to become a permanent member, what is the view of the Prime Minister of the UK, do you think that Japan should become a Permanent Member of the Security Council and if so what conditions should she fulfil?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We are now engaged I think in what will be a continuing debate about the reform of the Permanent Membership of the Security Council, I think that debate will take a while, there are a number of countries that have obvious credentials, Japan of course, Germany of course, but I think other countries will have ambitions to become Permanent Members of the Security Council and of course to fulfil the obligations that Permanent Members traditionally fulfil. I think that reform debate is now engaged, it will continue for some time.

    The primary concern I think as that debate does proceed is to make sure that whatever the outcome of that debate may be that the Permanent Membership of the United Nations retains the same compatibility that it has at present and is able to act as sufficiently decisively as it can today. It is the effectiveness and efficiency of the Permanent Members that will be primarily in our minds as we look at the question of reform. Clearly the members likely to join the Security Council will need to fulfil the same international criteria that has been the case in the past but I have no doubt that as the debate about the reform proceeds, when it concludes, that Japan is likely to be one of the beneficiaries.

    QUESTION (Japan Economic Journal):

    Ambassador Kistanura [phon] in the newsletter of the Japan Society has written that the Japan/UK relationship has come to a very favourable relationship, unseen in the past, I think in terms of Opportunity Japan, Priority Japan, The Japan Festival, all of these committees have led to such a good relationship. In the eyes of Japan our relationship with the UK is something that we regard highly. In order to further strengthen our relationship what kind of things should Japan do?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think as you rightly said the United Kingdom/Japan relationship in trade and economic matters is already very strong. A whole series of initiatives – Priority Japan springs immediately to mind, the large conferences by the UK and Japan and by Japan and the UK – have built up the relationship quite dramatically over the last few years. I think there are two aspects to the relationship: the first is political and the second is economic and trade. If I could say a word about both I would then like to ask Michael Perry to say a word also about the trading relationship.

    Let me touch on the political relationship first. I think that it is self-evident that Asia as a whole is being given a new priority in British policy. It is a time of dynamic political and economic change in Asia and the Pacific and I put that in the general area. But I would say more specifically that Japan is central to Britain’s approach in Asia and our political relationship is closer than it has been for a long time and the relationship between Japan, Britain and other large nations in dealing with international affairs is more effective and more efficient than we have known it in the past and that is going to continue, There is a distinct wish in British foreign policy to give a new priority to our relationship with Japan and our relationship more generally with Asia.

    On trade and economic matters we propose to build on the special relationship that has existed. There has been a very substantial trade flow between the United Kingdom and Japan, the recession of course has affected that, as it has affected every other trade relationship, but it is still growing and British exports, for example, to Japan have grown very dramatically in recent years. That is going to continue. The Prime Minister and I agreed earlier this afternoon that we would have a very high profile conference in London in the early part of January to carry the relationship forward. Richard Needham, the Minister for Trade, and Michael Perry as a businessman with immense experience of Japan and with particular responsibilities, will be looking at how we can carry our trade relations even further and will be making more announcements about that in the New Year.

    So I do not think there is anything new and fresh that I would particularly ask of Japan, what I would ask is that we continue going in the direction that we have been going for a long time. Many of the inhibitions to access to Japan’s markets have gone, some of the cultural inhibitions have not yet gone and there are still some individual areas that I have been discussing with the Prime Minister where we would like some further action. But overwhelmingly we are very pleased with the direction of policy.

    So I think that the relationship will continue to develop and ripen and I would like, with the Chairman’s permission, since I speak upon these matters as a politician, to ask a practising businessman with immense experience of Anglo/Japanese relations, perhaps to add a word on the trading aspects.

    MR PERRY:

    The development of Anglo/Japanese trade relations has been very positive, as the Prime Minister has said, in the last 5 or 10 years. The reason for that of course is in the first place the opening up of the market here and secondly the great cooperation we have had from all involved in the process of identifying markets and bringing the goods and services of Britain to the attention of Japanese buyers. There are of course still a number of areas which we are discussing together, in particular matters of deregulation in the financial and invisible sectors but we know that these are matters which concern Japanese businessmen too and we are encouraged to believe that these matters are being addressed.

    Overall we are concerned as British businessmen that we should be trading together in a multilateral trading system which means that we are judged on the quality of our goods and services, and that is all we ask.

    QUESTION:

    In your talks with the Prime Minister what points did you talk about and which points did you find agreement on in terms of trade and investment related matters?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We touched on a number of bilateral matters on trade and we shared a view that we must carry the trading relationship forward in the way I described a few moments ago. More widely and. perhaps immediately more crucial for all of us, we spent some time discussing the Uruguay Round and share a determination that that should come to a successful conclusion by 15 December and we spent a very considerable time upon that particular matter. That is an important multilateral agreement that I believe will re-engender a great deal of confidence in the international community, engender an increase in trade and an increase in trans-territorial investment and a creation of jobs and prosperity. So we spent a great deal of time discussing that in particular.

    The converse of course, about which the Prime Minister and I also agreed, was the immense damage that would be done to international confidence and trade were there not to be an agreement in the Uruguay Round.

    QUESTION (Sanke Newspaper):

    Today there will be a joint meeting between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Agriculture in Brussels and they will be talking about the agreement on agriculture to which France is opposed, do you think that if the present situation continues the basic agreement could be reached by the end of the year and did you ask anything of Mr. Hosokawa about the opening of Japan’s rice market?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    The meeting that there is in Brussels is a very important meeting, I can express to you the United Kingdom’s view about that very simply and very crisply. The European Community negotiators reached an agreement with the United States at Blair House, we have reached an agreement, we should keep to the agreement, it should not be re-opened and I see no reason for it to be re-opened. That is the view that the United Kingdom takes about Blair House. Agriculture is difficult, self-evidently difficult, but I think it cannot be permitted to prevent the completion of the Uruguay Round on 15 December, it cannot and it must not be permitted to do that so we will have to find a solution to the difficulties of individual members in the intervening period. think there are ways in which that can be done but certainly it cannot be done by re-opening Blair House, that is an agreement that has been done.

    We did not specifically discuss any details from the Japanese point of view of elements of the Uruguay Round but we did discuss the necessity to reach an agreement and Prime Minister Hosokawa made it clear to me that he too favours reaching an agreement.

    QUESTION (Jonathan Annals, Evening Standard Business Day):

    You just expressed your commitment to securing the successful completion of the Uruguay Round, earlier this afternoon Mr Davis from the CBI said that bilateral trade agreements were dangerous and they tended to undermine and perhaps replace multilateral agreements perhaps such as GATT. What is your view of the so-called trade framework talks which began yesterday in Hawaii between Japan and the United States which are intended to increase sales of American products in Japan sector by sector and reduce the trade deficit?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I share the view that was expressed by Howard Davis of the CBI, what we are looking for is a free trading, multilateral world, that is undoubtedly what is in everyone’s interests, that is what the GATT Round is about and. that must have pre-eminence in our discussions and in our concern. I was not present at any bilateral discussions but if you are going to have a proper free trading system around the world then it has to operate on a multilateral basis and that is and will remain our position.

    QUESTION (John Sergeant, BBC):

    On a domestic matter, could you say whether you are disappointed with the reaction of some of your MPs who appear to have rejected your appeal which you made here in Tokyo yesterday for loyalty to yourself and to the government. One of them said that you were out of touch with the feelings in Britain?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am here to look after British interests at home and abroad, to advance the British interests. I do not know which Member of Parliament said that, I do not know in what context he said it, do not know in response to what question he said it, and I think in the absence of knowing any of that I am not going to comment on the remarks of one of over 330 of my Conservative Members of Parliament. I can tell you that the overwhelming view of the Conservative Party is that we have come through the recession, we have now got a satisfactory platform for what we have been seeking for a long time – growth with low inflation. That is a tremendous opportunity for British industry domestically and British industry and the British economy internationally. And it is to develop that that I am here, it is to develop that that the government’s policies are directed and it is to develop that that I believe I will have the overwhelming support not just of the Conservative Party but I think of people right across the country.

    QUESTION (Todo News Service):

    In your talks with the Prime Minister, on specific matters I am sure you talked about individual matters, I am imagining this, could you please tell us what kind of dialogue you had with the Prime Minister concerning individual matters?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We touched on a very large number of international matters, I think it would probably take between now and midnight to run through all the background and. ramifications of what we covered in our two hour session. But in terms of international matters we discussed China, we discussed Russia, we discussed the United Nations, I touched upon that earlier, we talked about Hong Kong, we discussed a range of matters related to GATT, we touched on bilateral matters, we touched on UN peace-keeping, we touched also on the subject of Prisoners of War, we touched also upon a scheme that we were able to announce today, funded by the British private sector, to take some Japanese post-graduate students from Japan to study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom and we were able to announce that today, we discussed the arrangements for the joint UK/Japan Conference to which we attach great importance, that will take place in January. Later on in the afternoon I discussed with the Foreign Minister a range of Asian matters, Cambodia took a fair amount of our time there. I would not promise you that that is an inclusive list but I think it gives a broad indication of the sort of matters we discussed.

    QUESTION:

    Before you came to Japan we heard that, perhaps emulating President Bush’s visit to Japan, you were bringing a lot of businessmen with you and that you were going into top sales here in Japan, there were such rumours before you came, but in that regard did you have any strong request to make to the Japanese government?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    The British private sector is very able to make its own requests. You are quite right that I brought with me a very high powered delegation of very senior British businessmen and as I said earlier, and I am happy to repeat to this larger gathering, I think probably the most senior delegation of British businessmen ever collectively to leave the United Kingdom and certainly the most high powered delegation ever to accompany a Prime Minister abroad, Michael Perry is the leader.

    We had a series of discussions with the Kadanran [phon] this morning and I have had a series of meetings, of which I think you know. But I suppose the underlying point is this. We are still extremely keen to attract inward investment into the United Kingdom from Japan, I think that has been very successful from the point of the Japanese investor and I can certainly say it has been very welcome and very successful from the point of view of the United Kingdom. I wish to make it absolutely clear that we are happy to see that continue.

    Other than that what we are concerned about, and what Japan is concerned about, is opening up the world trading market so that decisions may be made upon merit in terms of trade, investment and the awarding of contracts, and it was matters relating to that that formed the bulk of our discussions throughout the day.

    QUESTION (Jiji News Service):

    I would like to go back a bit to Japan becoming a member of the Permanent Five, you mentioned that you talked about this with Prime Minister Hosokawa. On your part, if Japan wishes to become a member of the Permanent. Council, what specifically would you request from Japan and in your talks with the Prime Minister did you mention what kind of conditions you would attach for Japan to become a member?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    There would be no specific Japanese conditions that we would expect Japan to follow, what we would expect is that any new members, whomsoever it may be, Japan, others as well if there are other additions, what we would expect is for Permanent Members to be able in principle to play a full role, as have the existing Permanent Members, across a whole range of responsibilities, including peace-keeping, the provision of troops from time to time and finance. So what we would wish is to ensure that the Permanent Members remained effective and to ensure that all the Permanent Members were able and prepared to undertake the same responsibilities that the present Permanent Members could take.

    But we would not be asking for any special or different responsibilities from any new applicant, whether Japan or anyone else.

    QUESTION:

    Given your strictures about the silly and stupid noises off about your leadership that you have been saying here, do you think it was a politically wise judgment for the Chancellor to actually pull a rabbit out of the hat about a leadership campaign going on in London involving himself, the Home Secretary and Mr Portillo? There are suggestions that you feel lonely and isolated as Prime Minister, is the job getting at you and isn’t loneliness and being solitary part of the hazard of the job?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I have had some pretty extraordinary questions in the last two years, Gordon, three years, some of them actually from you, but I think that one probably takes the biscuit think the second part of it, Heaven alone knows where these nonsenses come from and I cannot speculate on that, it is not for me to suggest where everything that appears and is published comes from, if I did that no doubt I probably would feel very lonely and isolated, but I don’t, so I am not.

    As far as the first part of your question is concerned, I do not think it applies at all and I have simply no idea what led you to ask that part of the question.

    QUESTION:

    Did you discuss with Mr Hosokawa today the Yugoslavian problem and can you tell us is the war in Yugoslavia at its end and who or what is an obstacle to peace at the moment?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    The answer to the first half of the question is we did not this afternoon discuss Bosnia but it is quite probable that we will have the opportunity over dinner when we meet later on tonight to continue our discussions on a range of matters and I would imagine that Bosnia would be amongst them.

    As for the impediment to peace, it is difficult to determine precisely where it is, it seems to be a moving impediment, I do not think one can point the finger at any particular group and say they are the impediment to peace, the fact of the matter is that we want everyone to decide that they are going to reach a peaceful settlement and as this winter approaches it becomes increasingly urgent that that is the case. Last: winter the difficulties of delivering humanitarian aid were serious enough but last winter was fortunately a relatively mild winter in Bosnia, we cannot be certain that this winter will be the same, it may be a good deal more savage and that would mean that the hardship, particularly with the extra period of fighting damaging the infrastructure and communications ever more daily, would potentially be a disastrous occurrence.

    So I think there is a very great premium on every participant deciding that it is necessary to reach an agreement and reach an agreement speedily. The negotiators, David Owen from the United Kingdom amongst them working for the United Nations, are working very hard to achieve such an agreement and I hope that every wise international friend of Bosnia will put whatever pressure they can on the participants to make sure that an agreement is made and crucially kept. I think people are getting pretty cynical, month after month after month, of artificial bogus agreements being signed, promised and broken within hours of their signature. So I think we want to see some concrete action by each of the participants in this dreadful conflict.

    QUESTION:

    I apologise for coming back, Prime Minister, but the Chairman asked me whether I was satisfied with the answer and as I am not I thought I might just come back. Was it wise for the Chancellor to talk about a leadership battle going on in the party against you?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    He did not, as far as I am aware he did not and there is not and I am not aware of one and there is not one and I know it is a great disappointment to many people because it will undoubtedly be very newsworthy but the fact is there is no vacancy and neither is there going to be one.

    QUESTION (NHK):

    There exists a feeling of a great debt from World War II, there were many POWs and there is now an issue of compensation, what is your view regarding this issue? In relation to the reform of the UN Charter, do you think that this enemy clause regarding Japan should be excluded?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Upon the latter point there was no suggestions about the exclusion of Japan, the question of reform is under discussion and Japan is clearly a prime applicant should there be extension of the Permanent Membership. As far as your earlier question about Prisoners of War, the Prime Minister reiterated his earlier comments and we are having continuing bilateral discussion to see whether we can find a conclusion to this affair, but I do not think it is helpful to comment beyond that.

    QUESTION (Reuters):

    In your discussion with the Prime Minister or with any of the business leaders did the current level of the Yen come up and its possible effects on trade?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    No we did not directly discuss that, there is a very strong Yen at the moment and we discussed exchange rates generally but we did not discuss the particular point which you ask in your question.

    QUESTION (TASS):

    You mentioned that you discussed Russian problems today, could you go into more detail?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Only up to a point. We were looking at the reform programme in Russia, the difficulties that have been overcome and the opportunities and difficulties that lie ahead, that was the general thrust of our discussion. we both share a wish to see democracy firmly entrench itself in Russia, we understand the difficulties there have been but also the immense progress that has been made over the period of the last five years and we find that progress immensely reassuring. Nobody is in any doubt about the difficulties that lie ahead and we were just casting our mind forward to some of those.

    QUESTION (John Craig, Daily Express):

    You said today that we are on our way out of the hole, if that is right, why is it then that Conservative MPs are still sniping from the sidelines, as your Conservative Party Chairman describes it?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I described to you what the economic circumstances undoubtedly are. We were in recession for far longer than I would have wished, for a couple of years or so, it was longer and it was a deeper recession than I wished. Self-evidently Britain is now out of recession, the CBI for example think our growth will be rather higher than the Treasury have forecast, but I think there is no doubt that we will have the highest growth in the Community this year and a higher level of growth next year and again the highest level in the Community. So I think when you ally that to the fact that our exports are booming, our productivity has risen, and I think there is no doubt when one puts that against the other economic developments that we are seeing domestically, that the British economy is recovering in precisely the way we would wish it to recover if we are to have a sustained period of growth with low inflation. It has not been easy to achieve that, it has been very painful not least for many companies and many people in the United Kingdom, but it has been achieved, what we now have to do is to use that platform to make sure we can sustain it over a very long period and that is the matter that concerns me.

    As far as sniping concerned, politics is sometimes about sniping, but it does not alter the realities and the realities are that the thing that is of greatest importance is the growth of the British economy, the return to increasing prosperity and the opportunity to put more British citizens back to work, that is what. I am concentrating on, that is what the government is concentrating on and I fervently hope that is what every Member of Parliament will concentrate on.

    QUESTION (NHK):

    Four years from now Hong Kong will be returned to China, this is a relevant question, the UK had a colony over the past 150 years, how do you view this UK colonial rule in Asia for this past 150 years? In 1902 there was an Anglo/Japanese alliance but during World War II we had a different relationship, how do you view Japan’s dominance in Asia during World War II?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think there are some things, I am predominantly concerned with looking at the present day position and what the opportunities are for the future. But as far as past colonial rule is concerned, a great deal of that was a long time ago, I think it offered a great deal to a large part of the world. At the moment we are moving towards the end of British responsibility for Hong Kong, that will end formally in 1997, that does not mean we will not continue to have a very strong and powerful affection for Hong Kong, we most certainly will, it does not mean we will not have a continuing interest in Hong Kong, we certainly will, it does not mean we will not continue to have a great deal of trade relationships with Hong Kong and investment in Hong Kong, we most certainly will do all of those things, and what we are concerned to do is to make sure that Hong Kong is able to continue as a free and open entrepôt in the future, just as it has done in the past, and I think in our negotiations with China we will be able to achieve that outcome.

    QUESTION:

    Concerning the privacy law in terms of press coverage in your country we have heard a lot about the possibility and need for protection of privacy being discussed in your country, about self-regulating bodies being established, what does the government think about this, are you thinking about some legal approach to this matter or are you going to leave it in the hands of the self-regulatory bodies? In this regard it seems like the White Paper is delayed in being produced, could you explain the situation?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think you have heard the evidence of your own ears that our friends, the British press, are not repressed, they look like a pretty free and open press to me and I have absolutely no doubt that they will be as irrepressible in the future as they have been in the past. We do have a report that was commissioned on the subject of that matter and we are examining that report and will make our announcement soon, but I think we had better finish our examination and I do not think it would be prudent to make any announcement of that sort in Tokyo, I think that is an announcement that will be best made when conclusions are reached in London.

    CHAIRMAN:

    We would like to end this Q and A session, can we have any message to the Japanese people regarding your visit here to Japan, can we have the last remarks from you, Prime Minister?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I would simply wish to say this in conclusion. The relationship between Japan and the United Kingdom has grown and widened and deepened very significantly over the last decade or so, one notices that most obviously in the trading and economic relations, I think one increasingly sees it in international cooperation as Asia becomes self-evidently more authoritative in the world at large, So I regard our relationship with Japan as extremely important and I am delighted to have had the opportunity of returning to Japan for the second time in just a few weeks.

    There are as you may know, or perhaps you may not know, there are many tens of thousands of Japanese students in the United. Kingdom and there are quite a few British students in Japan and I think that shows the extent to which as the generations move on the relationship between our two countries becomes ever closer and think that is a very welcome development and I welcome the opportunity to express it.

    CHAIRMAN:

    Thank you very much, Mr Prime Minister. In a very tight schedule you joined us and we appreciated very much your joining us at this National Press Club. From the Japan National Press Club, as is customary, I would like to present you with a small memento of this occasion. This is a pen done with Japanese craftwork.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Thank you very much, I think this is the way to conduct a press conference and I think you have probably set a precedent that I am sure my colleagues from the United Kingdom will wish to follow on every future occasion.

  • Mr Major’s On the Record Briefing in Tokyo – 19 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s on the record briefing, held in Tokyo on Sunday 19th September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    [part of the questions and answers were inaudible, and those sections are marked by …]

    I much admire the fact that you all speak English since I have to tell you my Japanese is non-existent, but thank you for that helpful fact that you do, but nonetheless I will take things quite slowly rather than gabble in our usual British fashion in the hope that that will be a little easier.

    It does not seem very long ago that I was here for the G7, just a few weeks ago, but I am delighted to be back, I am looking forward to seeing the Prime Minister tomorrow and other colleagues and discussing the things that have happened since the G7 and more relevantly the things that are happening now and are going to happen in the future, there are a number of very important joint interests that we have.

    If I could just say a word about trading and political relationships. I think our political and economic links at the moment are better than they have been at any time that I can recall, they have grown very substantially over the last 10 years or so. Politically there are the bilateral links through the G7, there are a large number of bilateral contacts, there is a great deal of contact between us on international issues and I have no doubt that will continue.

    On the trading front we have a very substantial trade flow in both directions and a very substantial investment flow in both directions. I have brought with me on this occasion I think possibly the most high powered British business delegation ever to leave the United Kingdom together and I brought them to Japan because of the very substantial trade relationship that there is between us and frankly the excellence of that relationship. The companies that have come are all very large companies indeed and I think in their own fields they are amongst the world leaders. I emphasise that not just to praise companies but because it is a very clear illustration of the importance of the trade relationship.

    We have been delighted to receive a very substantial amount of Japanese investment in the United Kingdom, there is no such thing in the United Kingdom as a Japanese company, there are companies with Japanese owners in the United Kingdom but we regard them as British companies, they are treated as British companies and we extend their interests across the whole of the European Community in precisely the same way as if they were British owned. I think that has been most evident of course in the motor car industry but it applies generally, it has done in the past and it will do in the future. Despite the scale of our trade and investment relations there is room for further growth and I hope we will see it.

    Amongst the things I hope to discuss with the Prime Minister in particular tomorrow, but also I think with others, is the necessity, not lust the wish, but the necessity to reach an agreement in the Uruguay Round this year. Many people in the past have questioned whether: there really is a deadline this year and whether, if we miss it, as we have done before, we can just go on to a later date. I must say I do not believe that we can, for a range of reasons I think this deadline of 15 December is a deadline and if we are to get a comprehensive agreement then we will need to reach that agreement by 15 December. I think that is very much in Britain’s interest and very much in Japan’s interest, we are both by instinct free traders but more important than that I think it is very much in the interests of the whole of the industrial and non-industrialised world that we get a satisfactory outcome to the Uruguay Round.

    A lot of progress was made when I was last in Japan at the Quad talks and I was very pleased about that. Every country, without any exception anywhere in the industrialised world, is going to have to make some concessions in the GATT Round to reach an agreement, some of them will be painful, some of them will be politically difficult, but the advantage of the overall deal is such that I think every country must do it.

    There is, as you may know, some dispute between the United States and the European Community over agriculture and Blair House. I can only tell you the British view, the British view is that the Blair House deal should not be re-opened, it was reached, it should be stuck to and it should not be used as an impediment to prevent the GATT round.

    We do have some specific issues on market access that I am likely to raise over the next day or so but I will leave you to ask questions about that rather than specifically mention them, you will not be surprised to hear which ones they are.

    I hope also we can look at a range of other international matters, I shall certainly want to ask the Prime Minister, about Cambodia, I am sure we will look at other trouble spots around the world like Bosnia, have no doubt we will exchange our views over Russia and Ukraine and a number of other international problems as well.

    I also want to talk to the Prime Minister about deregulation. I was very interested to see in his economic package the other day the proposals for a large amount of deregulation. We are about to produce legislation in the British Parliament for deregulation of business and I think we may well be able to exchange some experiences there.

    Just one final word, if I may, about the United Kingdom economy. Economies all round the world have been sluggish and difficult, you have had your own difficulties in Japan as well as we have. We have been through a recession, we are now out of recession, we are starting to grow, our growth this year will be modest but it will be the largest growth in the European Community. Our growth next year will be a good deal bigger and again it will be the largest growth in the European Community.

    We have inflation down to under 2 percent for the whole of this year, there is no sign that inflation is going to rise again, there is every sign that gentle and steady growth is going to continue. Our exports are rising quite substantially, our productivity is improving quite substantially. So I think we are in a position with low inflation, low interest rates, declining unit wage costs and accelerating growth and we can look forward to a much more clement economic climate over the next few years than we have had in the last few years.

    One thing we will not do is take any risks with inflation, I am determined that we should have steady growth with low inflation for the next few years because I think that is frightfully important for the industrial and commercial development that I hope to see in the United Kingdom.

     

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, my first question is the issue of former POWs who have been claiming for compensation from the Japanese government, although Prime Minister Hosokawa made formal … for wartime atrocities of Japanese Imperial forces he said he thought that the case was closed under the San Francisco Peace treaty. When you raise this issue with the Prime Minister will you demand any compensation?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is an issue that is very live in a number of countries at the moment, in Canada you will know the situation in Canada and you will know of the situation in Holland and it is a live issue in the United Kingdom as well. Britain and Japan are very close and friendly partners and I expect I shall raise the matter but I shall expect to discuss the matter in that spirit and I think it is one of those matters where it is best served if the Prime Minister and I discussed that matter privately rather than air that discussion in public, I think that is the right way to enter into the discussions and if you will forgive me I will say no more about it other than to confirm that it is a matter the Prime Minister and I will discuss.

    QUESTION:

    My second question is regarding the organisation of the United Nations. The United Kingdom seems to be rather … as far as the UN is concerned in that the UN Security Council as it stands has been functioning very well and both Japan and Germany … to send combat forces to the other side of the world. I think you will take up this issue with the Prime Minister, would you change the extent of the policies of the UK vis a vis the UN?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I set out some comments on this when I was here in July at the G7. There is a debate on the reform of the Security Council which is now under way, it has been an embryo debate for some time and it has rather gathered pace over the last few months. The key point I think in any reform is to ensure that the Security Council is able to deal effectively with the global security problems that are its responsibilities and all the Permanent Members of course are expected to play a full role in peace-keeping. That debate on the Security Council is not going to go away, it is going to accelerate and you mentioned particularly Japan and Germany, but I think there are other countries as well that will want to play a particular role in that debate, I think it is very likely, for example, if this debate gets under way that the non-aligned countries will also say: Well we should have a Permanent Member as well. So I think the debate is a little wider than just the present Permanent Five and the applicants, there is a very large … from Japan and from Germany.

    As that debate continues, if you would like to know my personal view I will tell you. I personally would expect that Japan would benefit from any expansion of the Security Council, I think that will take a while because it is a very complex and difficult debate, it will not be easy to conclude but I think the reform process is now under consideration, it is not going to go away and at the end of it I would expect that Japan would benefit, but I could not put a time frame to that.

    QUESTION:

    Could you tell me how the Russian President … do you think he can survive?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Yes I do think he will survive, he is a pretty robust character the Russian President, I believe, you may correct me, but I think there are plans for him to visit Tokyo at some stage in the future. There have been a number of occasions in the last couple of years where people have said: Is the Russian President going to survive? He has, he is an extremely robust character. Three or four years ago when President Gorbachev was there, there was always the alternative in the wings of a putative President Yeltsin, no such immediate alternative is there. Clearly he is going to have a lot of very difficult decisions to take, he is going to have a lot of opposition and a lot of criticism, but I do believe he will be able to overcome that, quite how he is going to handle the constitutional difficulties he faces with elections later this year or perhaps next year I cannot tell you, but if you want to know my hunch as to whether President Yeltsin will be there in 12 months time, my hunch is yes he will.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think there are two points, quality coordination is one; I think the other point reverts back to a topic of a few moments ago, if one asks oneself what is the single ingredient that the world economic situation lacks at the moment I suspect the answer that most people would give you is confidence, people are not confident about the sustained economic period of growth in the future. And what is the single ingredient that is most likely to engender confidence? I think I would argue quite strongly that the single ingredient most likely to engender confidence is a satisfactory completion of the Uruguay Round, I think that would make a very powerful difference.

    On the question of the European Community you are absolutely right, the United Kingdom is out of recession but a number of the other European countries are going into recession. I do not know how long that cycle will last, there are two views in Germany, Germany is the most powerful economy in Western Europe, one view is that the Germans will be coming out of recession in a matter of months, another that it will be longer. I hope it will be the former view because they, Japan and the United States are the three great powerful motors in the world economic system.

    As for policy coordination generally we discussed that at the G7 and I think it was generally agreed what needed to be done – the Europeans need to reduce interest rates, they are starting to do that, events have enabled them, there have been a number of interest rate reductions across Europe, nobody foresees interest rates rising in Europe, they see them declining, that is very welcome indeed. The view also is that we wanted to see a fiscal stimulus in Japan, there has been a fiscal stimulus in Japan and we must wait and see whether that is satisfactory and will … the Japanese economy. And in the United States we want to see continued growth. I do not think the United States is growing as fast as we thought it was a few months ago, it seems to have slowed down, I think that is now becoming clearly evident, but it is still growing.

    So the three components that we set out at the G7 are all under way, the United States is growing, Japan has injected a fiscal stimulus and interest rates are declining across Europe. So I think that is the first time for 3 or 4 years that each of the three economic blocs have got policy moving in a direction that will engender growth and I think that is welcome.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am a multilateralist rather than a bilateralist and I want to see multilateral deals and multilateral growth, not bilateral growth, I think that is very clearly what my view is.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    The International Olympic Committee will decide on Thursday I think, all the bidding has pretty much been done. I very much hope that Manchester will get it. A year ago many people would have said Manchester was an outsider, I do not believe they would say that today, the Manchester bid is a very powerful bid now and I think we have every chance of winning on Thursday but whether we will or not, who can tell. As for Beijing, I will just restrain myself to saying Beijing is not my choice.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am not going to raise the issue in public now, I am going to discuss it with the Prime Minister. I think this is the sort of matter that is most likely to come to a satisfactory conclusion if it is discussed privately, I do not believe in what one might crudely call diplomacy by megaphone, if I have something to say I prefer to say it privately, you may regard that as a novel British approach but it is very much the one that I prefer. So without wishing to be discourteous, if you will forgive me I will reserve what I have to say for my private meeting with the Prime Minister,

    I am sorry not to be more forthcoming.

    QUESTION:

    Turning to European issues, the European Monetary System has virtually collapsed, as one of the main artists to the Maastricht Treaty do you think that the European leaders should be … of the European declaration.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Are you talking about the Exchange Rate Mechanism or full economic and monetary union?

    QUESTION:

    I understand that the European Monetary System is the cornerstone of the future economic and monetary union, in that sense if you look at the confusion of the monetary system …

    PRIME MINISTER:

    When the Chancellor came out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism I said then that I thought there were serious fault lines in the Exchange Rate Mechanism, I still believe that, I believe there are serious fault lines and until those serious fault lines are put right there is the danger of the same sort of difficulty again. The Exchange Rate Mechanism for some, not all maybe, but for some would … towards full economic and monetary union and a single currency, the timetable was set out for achieving that. My view quite clearly is that that timetable is no longer remotely realistic, not remotely realistic, and my fellow Heads of Government in the European Community know that is my view. At the time of the Maastricht Treaty I declined to accept the full economic and monetary union proposals of my colleagues, I had what was known as an opt-out so that the British parliament could decide at a future date if it wanted to go into economic and monetary union. I believe that the events since Maastricht have proved that that judgment of mine was right and I personally do not consider the timetable set out in Maastricht, to which some still hold, to be remotely realistic.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    In terms of timescale, most certainly, and I think in other ways too, yes. I think one can see looking around the European Community, I think there are other more pressing issues that the European Community should turn its mind to and I shall be trying to persuade them to turn their mind to What should be bothering people in Europe most is how to re-engender growth and create jobs. In the European Community there are 17.5 million European adults out of work, that figure is going to go up in the next year or so to around 20 million adults. That is an astonishing figure in an industrial society. In Japan mercifully you have not had serious unemployment problems for decades, but 20 million unemployed is not a problem that will be solved by long distance … monetary union, the European economies have got to look at the much shorter problem of how to engender sufficient growth, to have sufficient deregulation to put people back to work.

    I think there are three things they have got to do: they do need policies that will engender growth without inflation; they do need to deregulate, the European markets are much too heavily regulated, the United Kingdom is perhaps the least too heavily regulated and yet I believe we are over-regulated; and the other problem in Europe is their social costs are infinitely higher for companies than social costs in Japan, in the Pacific Basin or in the United States and the European Community, if it is going to thrive in the long term, has got to realise that it is not a question of France competing with Germany, competing with Spain, competing with Britain, it is a question of the whole of the European Community competing with Japan, with America and with the rest of the world so they have got to cut their social costs as well and those are the issues I believe they should concentrate on.

    QUESTION:

    My last question is regarding what you said in your opening remarks, when you said … need assistance to bring around a successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round, does it mean that you are going to say to Prime Minister Hosokawa …

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We will certainly discuss all the outstanding elements of GATT, all of them I would think, and I daresay that Prime Minister Hosokawa will say to me that I have got to make sure the European Community … some gains over agriculture too, I would expect him to say that and I will agree with him about that. But I will raise the GATT Round, some things we will deal with specifically others generally.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I have no recent information, one has seen all the rumours there have been of Scottish lawyers being briefed by Qadhafi but I have nothing concrete on that that I can confirm, I very much hope so, I think it is necessary that the people who are believed to be responsible for this atrocity should face trial and find out whether they are guilty or not and the sooner that happens the better and I very much hope such a trial will take place.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is possible but we do not know yet. It is perfectly possible for a trial to take place in Scotland but in order for that to happen the accused have to be delivered up by the Libyans and I do not yet know whether that is likely to happen, I hope it will, we have not heard.

    QUESTION:

    You have no hard evidence?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We have no hard evidence at all, we have seen the reports that you have seen but as is sometimes the case in the world you are as well informed as we are and I have no hard evidence at all.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I will, I am stopping in Kuala Lumpur en route and then I am going on to Monte Carlo and I look forward to seeing you all in Manchester in the year 2000.

  • Mr Major’s Interview with Schoolchildren in Tokyo – 19 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s interview with schoolchildren in Tokyo on Sunday 19th September 1993.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, I was wondering if you could briefly sum up what it actually feels like to be Prime Minister?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Well it is never dull, you can absolutely be certain of that. It is quite a hectic life but it has great satisfaction because you can see things that need to be done and you are in a better position than almost anyone to do them so that is very satisfying.

    QUESTION:

    Job satisfaction is a major part of your job description then?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think if you did not like this job you certainly would not do it.

    QUESTION:

    Do you read what the papers say about you?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Not very often, no, I neither read them very often nor do I believe them.

    QUESTION:

    Would it not affect you?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think politicians are in the public arena, they must expect sometimes to be criticised, sometimes they are praised unfairly, sometimes they are criticised fairly, sometimes they are criticised unfairly, I am afraid it is part of the game, you have to live with it.

    QUESTION:

    Just to change the subject slightly, I know that the tradition of present giving is very important in Japanese culture so I was wondering what a guest such as yourself would give to your host?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    The Prime Minister is a very keen golfer and I have brought a rather splendid print of St. Andrews for him and we have a small enamel vase for his wife which I think is rather attractive and has a special Chequers logo on it. I hope they like them.

  • Mr Major’s Briefing en route to Tokyo – 18 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s on the record briefing on the plane to Tokyo on Saturday 18th September 1993.

    MICHAEL PERRY (UNILEVER):

    We have a good team of businessmen in this group as you have seen and that in itself is unaccidental; what it describes most fundamentally is the value we place on a visit of this nature in the company of the Prime Minister at this sort of time. This is a time of enormous change in Japan, as you will be aware, a new government, new thinking, massive economic problems, new kinds of problems for them, a determination to drive through improvements and changes in their own balance of trade and payment patterns, recognition of the serious problems they have got in dealing with their trading partners and Britain over the last five or six years has been seeking to achieve progress in this area through rather different means from our American friends; we sought to persuade them about our role as their best friends in Europe in terms of inward investment and looking to build partnerships within Japan.

    What has happened is that most of the formal barriers of trade have now disappeared; there are one or two issues still around but they are really quite minor; they are matters such as whisky, leather, shoes. What is much more important is the Japanese propensity to buy foreign. This is cultural, it is historical, they are not used to the idea of putting their business in the hands of foreign companies. This is much more down to us to solve than down to governments to solve. Governments can pave the way but we have got to do it. There is a massive problem of convincing Japanese buyers that they can rely on the quality, supply and all the other issues that they think are important in a foreign company so that is a new area of focus and it is very much what the export promotion programme for the DTI by the British Overseas Trade Board has been about. This visit ought to give new impetus to that coming as it does right behind the new Hosokawa package which focuses very much on getting the Japanese consumer to have some of the benefits of the high yen. They are not doing it at the moment; margins are still high, the cost of imported products is absurdly high and there are still plenty of restrictive practices around in the retail and wholesale trade and it is nice, I think, to see the growth of some of the discounters who are now emerging in Japan who are sticking a knife into the soft underbelly of a rather fat distribution system and they are getting a lot of encouragement which is important.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Let me just add a word or two from my perspective:

    This is overwhelmingly though not exclusively a trade-related trip. The trade relationship we have with Japan has grown very dramatically; all of you will be familiar with the inward investment we have seen in the North-East, in Wales and elsewhere but I think the time has come when we need to give that trading relationship a fresh emphasis and a fresh push and there are a variety of reasons why now is a good time to do that: the new Hosokawa Government is one, I will be the first overseas visitor, I think, that he has received; the fact that the Japanese are becoming increasingly concerned about the scale of their trade surplus, as others are, renders it another ideal opportunity for us to push the case for British exports and for British investment.

    There are a number of particular matters that clearly one will raise when we are there. I shall raise the GATT Round and the importance of making sure we get a satisfactory settlement there; there are still some Japanese problems on GATT that need to be solved. There are a series of other matters that you would he extremely surprised if I didn’t raise; I need not run through a long list of them but whisky springs immediately to mind. On the last visit I had to Tokyo eight or nine weeks ago, the external tariffs on whisky disappeared but there still is a very discriminatory internal tariff on whisky – you can argue whether it is three times as high or ten times as high but there is no doubt that on whisky in particular and spirits there is a very high discriminatory internal tariff and that is the sort of matter I will be discussing with them.

    We certainly want to see what we can do to close the very substantial trade gap; it is something like £5 billion. I think there is ample scope for us to see that close.

    We have on this trip as high-powered a delegation of senior British businessmen as I think can ever have left the United Kingdom together; they will not be novitiates in Japan; many of them will have had a relationship for a long time and they will be there to develop longer-term themes. Whereas in India we were looking at the prospects of a series of contracts that we might or might not have got in the very short-term – as it happened on the Indian trip we did get them – here we are looking at a longer-term perspective rather than short-term contracts so on the business front that is the sort of thing we will be discussing.

    There will be a meeting with the Kaidonran [phonetic] for the businessmen and I, and I hope that will be a successful meeting. I have a fairly lengthy meeting with the Prime Minister and all the businessmen will join me afterwards and we hope this will play some part in opening a few doors and speeding up some decisions.

    On other matters, there are some bilateral matters and there will be some political matters we wish to discuss. We will certainly discuss the question of the prisoners of war issue but I don’t propose to go into details of that at this moment but there are a range of bilateral issues like that.

     

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION (Gordon Grieg, Daily Mail):

    Do you think that the controversy in the Conservative Party about your leadership tends to undermine the importance of a trip like this?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    No, I don’t and I very much doubt that Mr. Hosokawa and I will give it a passing thought.

    QUESTION (Gordon Grieg, Daily Mail):

    But the Japanese press might!

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I can’t answer for the press.

    QUESTION (Gordon Grieg, Daily Mail):

    So you don’t think it is a diversion at all?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am here to discuss trade and that is what I will be doing.

    QUESTION:

    Are you a little worried that this is perhaps a slightly inconvenient time for you to be abroad for so long? Some of your colleagues at Westminster are a little worried that you are going to be out of the country for a week and things are looking a bit dodgy.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am glad you confirm they need me so much!

    QUESTION (Mark Webster, ITN):

    Do you personally favour the idea of some form of compensation for the POWs? Although I appreciate you can’t discuss it publicly, do you personally feel that some form of compensation would be appropriate?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am going to discuss the matter in a way I think is most appropriate and that is to express views directly to the Prime Minister.

    QUESTION:

    Mr. Perry, British trade delegations have been coming to Japan for about the last thirty years and it has made no appreciable impact on the balance of trade. They seem to have a great tradition of buying Japanese. What makes you think you are going to change anything?

    1. PERRY:

    Of course that is right but there has been a great deal of movement. When I started doing this sort of thing about ten years ago we were talking all the time about trade disputes, about massive problems of access, built-on tariff barriers, non-tariff barriers, quotas, every kind of impediment. They have in the course of a decade been quite literally swept away.

    What has happened is that our exports to Japan have gone up in a three-to–four-year period by 18%, the first half of this year up another 13%. I think we have got to build on positions of that kind.

    The point you are making is a very fair one. We will not succeed by browbeating either Japanese officials or Japanese customers. If you are a customer, you are not going to succumb to being browbeaten by a supplier; you are going to be persuaded by a supplier eventually on a set of criteria that you will set, nobody else.

    QUESTION:

    But isn’t that the Japanese method, browbeating?

    1. PERRY:

    I don’t think so. I have been doing trade there for a long time. I have encountered no real barriers to selling superior products.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Can I just add one word to that last point? I forget which of the businessmen said it to me last night but I think it is germane and I suspect Michael will strongly agree with it. It is quite difficult to get into the Japanese market in the first place; it takes a long time; you don’t just make one visit and they sign up huge contracts but as he put it to me, the more you get into the Japanese market the easier it is to do further business and there is a very dramatic growth in the business. It is very much a long-run game and I think this is part of accelerating that. I hope it will help to show how strongly the Government is behind the British export effort and the British investment effort hut it isn’t something that one expects suddenly to happen overnight and dramatically but the growth in exports over the last few years has been pretty astonishing. Michael quoted a three-year figure; I think it is just over 14% in the last fifteen months or so it is on an escalating trend and I hope we can give it another push because they are keen to import, I am keen to encourage them to provide import incentives and to remove any cultural discrimination that there may be – in the case of things like whisky, taxation discrimination.

    QUESTION:

    On GATT, although there are problems with the Japanese, is there anything of a magnitude that could derail the whole Uruguay Round as compared with the problems between America and the EC which clearly could?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think it is most unlikely. There are a series of problems with Japan, rice is the most obvious one but there are others as well but I would be astounded if it were a Japanese problem that brought the GATT Round to an unsuccessful conclusion, absolutely astounded. I think at the moment the Japanese are waiting to see what happens in the disputes over Blair House and on agriculture and on one or two other high-tariff problems between the United States and Europe but once that is out of the way, although there are some quite painful decisions – rice is the most painful – I don’t have any doubt at all that the Japanese would reach a conclusion and that they would not block a GATT Round.

    QUESTION:

    I just wanted to go back to the question of your leadership, Prime Minister. You were quoted recently as saying that you would leave your job when we least expected it and some of your critics inside the party have been suggesting that that could be quite soon. Can you give us a pledge that you will not be leaving quite soon, that you will be staying on until the next election?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think you misread what was said but I think you can expect to be having conversations like this with me for quite a long time ahead. I look forward to them very much.

  • Mr Major’s Doorstep Interview in Tokyo – 18 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s doorstep interview in Tokyo, held on Saturday 18th September 1993.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, can I ask you what you make of all this talk about the leadership issue?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We have heard all this in the past. I think there are one or two mavericks who raise the issue from time to time. It is frankly a non-issue.

    QUESTION:

    Do you think it undermines the purpose of your visit here?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    No, I don’t think it undermines the purpose of the visit. The purpose here is political and the purpose is economic. There are huge opportunities for a much greater trade relationship with Japan, huge opportunities for British exports, huge opportunities for investment by Britain in Japan in the United Kingdom where many jobs have been created already.

    QUESTION:

    Some of your critics say that this is not the time for you to be out of the country and that you should be concentrating on domestic issues and reasserting your leadership.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I would have thought that actually expanding British prosperity, expanding British trade, expanding the opportunities of British jobs, expanding the opportunity of British growth was very much in the British interest and that is what I am here to do.

  • Mr Major’s Joint Doorstep Interview with Prime Minister Keating – 17 September 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint doorstep interview with Prime Minister Keating, held in London on Friday 17th September 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    The Prime Minister and I have had the opportunity in a period before lunch and over lunch to range over a whole range of matters. I will invite the Prime Minister to say a few words, I will perhaps add anything that may still be overhanging and then we will take a few questions.

    PRIME MINISTER KEATING:

    The Prime Minister and I have had a very cordial discussion both before and during lunch. It ranged over a number of topics including substantially on the Uruguay Round both I think underlining the importance of the Round to growth and to employment, both of the belief I think that the December 15 deadline is a real deadline and that now is the time to draw the Round to a successful conclusion by the maintenance of the Blair House Accords and with other adjustments a conclusion of the Round. I think we both see that as an important backdrop to world trade and see it as evidence of the fact that the international interest in a global multilateral trading system is still there and that seven years of effort shouldn’t go in vain so we have, I think, decided that we should speak for the conclusion of the Round and as the Chair of the Cairns Group at the moment, Australia very enthusiastically supports the Blair House Accords and a conclusion of the Round.

    The Prime Minister and I also had a discussion about our constitutional arrangements in Australia and he made the point clearly to me that this is a matter between the people of Australia, the Government of Australia and the Queen of Australia underlining a point he had made earlier that Australia and Britain have a modern relationship as two societies to one another, that we are doing more together now than we were even doing ten years ago, that we are a substantial investor in each other’s countries, that for Australians Britain is a platform for investment into Europe and for Britons Australia is a platform for investment into Asia and that we are doing work much more bilaterally than we have ever done and that our relationship is maturing and succeeding as we contemplate difficulties between us including of course our respective trading environments, ours the Asia-Pacific, Britain’s the European Community.

    Could I conclude that resume by saying that we had again a cordial discussion agreeing on these points of substance which I think are important to both Britain and Australia.

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    I don’t think there is a great deal to add to that, just perhaps a few points of emphasis to add.

    We spent some time on the British/Australian bilateral relationship. I think it is as good today as it has been for very many years. The trade relationship in particular is growing both in terms of investment between the two countries and the trade flow between the two countries. We both see considerable opportunities for that to continue to increase and we will both do what we can to ensure that has the maximum support.

    The points the Prime Minister made about the Uruguay Round I think are immensely important. I share his view entirely that the December 15 deadline is a deadline we should take very seriously. I know we have heard this before, that there is going to be a deadline on the Uruguay Round and then it has gone on beyond that. I think it would be extremely unwise to assume that that will happen on this occasion and the prize for the world of a satisfactory Uruguay Round settlement is very great but equally, the cost to the world of not having a Uruguay Round settlement would be very great as well and I hope that is a point that is fully understood amongst all the countries that participate in these particular discussions.

    As the Prime Minister said, we discussed the constitutional issue. I don’t propose to add to what he said. It is a matter for the Queen of Australia and the Australian Prime Minister and his Ministers and I am going to have nothing further to add about that today.

    Rather than reiterate the points the Prime Minister made, I would just like to take a few questions from you and we will both answer them or one of us, as you wish.

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister Major, do you think that on the people-to-people level the republican debate in Australia could in fact harm relations between our countries?

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    I think, as I said a moment ago, the constitutional point is a point for the Queen and for the Australian Government.

    As far as the people-to-people relationship is concerned, I think that runs very deep; it runs very deep and has run very deep for a very long time and I think it is necessary to see the two separate questions, the constitutional question between Australian Ministers and the Queen of Australia and the bilateral, commercial and other relationships between Australia and the United Kingdom; that has been strong, is strong and is going in my judgement to continue to be strong.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister Keating, Australia House said you had recourse to the British public in your view that Australia should be a republic? On what did you base that?

    PRIME MINISTER KEATING:

    I think this is one of the world’s great democracies and if a nation state deliberately and coherently decides democratically to adopt a different set of constitutional arrangements that will obviously be approved of within a democracy such as Britain; an essentially democratic act will always I think have the support of a democratic people and so i don’t think it is a matter of trying to put a dipstick into British opinions but rather look at Britain’s long-run respect for democratic procedures and processes.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, do you see no impediment to Australia taking on republic status?

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    As I indicated a moment ago, that constitutionally and I think in practical terms as well is a matter these days that has to be a matter between the Queen who is Queen of Australia and her Australian Ministers – she has Ministers in Australia just as she has Ministers here – and she will take their constitutional advice. I think constitutionally it is proper for that matter to be determined between the Queen and her Australian Ministers.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister Keating, what is your schedule of events for arriving at this new constitution for turning Australia into a republic?

    PRIME MINISTER KEATING:

    That will require a scheduling obviously of a constitutional process leading up to a referendum by the Australian people. The target we have is for 2001 but that will require, as any such important constitutional change requires, a period of education and understanding and consensus and we have already embarked on that process now.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister Keating, what you are suggesting and what your referendum may or may not lead to is of course of immense historical significance. What you are really going to do or your country may decide to do is the final break-up of the greatest empire this country has ever seen, this world has ever seen [Laughter] and are you historically aware of what you are doing and that this may have a knock-on effect, New Zealand may do it and other members of the British Commonwealth too? You are the catalyst of history, Mr. Keating.

    PRIME MINISTER KEATING:

    Well you are the source of much mirth by your colleague journalists behind you! I don’t think you can ascribe that catalytic role to me. The key policy is between the Australian people and the Queen of Australia. The relationship we are speaking of and the one which you are seeking for us to nurture is the one between Britain and Australia and as the Prime Minister said today and said again eloquently on Australia Day in the address which he gave, there is great depth in the relationship between Australia and Great Britain and it is growing and if anything such a change will lead to an even better relationship as Australia remains part of the Commonwealth but where our friendship and links can be fully expressed rather than being compromised by a constitutional arrangement which doesn’t meet the approval of the great majority of the Australian people.

    QUESTION:

    It was you that kicked it off though. You are the one who started it.

    PRIME MINISTER KEATING:

    I don’t think that is true. I think it is called national aspirations and national identity.

    QUESTION:

    On another subject, were you concerned by the success of the British National Party last night?

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    Yes, I was. I think it was an unfortunate result. I just want to make it quite clear there is no place in our society for those sort of policies and I hope that will be readily understood by everyone. I gather at least one of the political parties is looking at their literature – I think that is right. I have no comments to make about that other than to say I think it was an unfortunate result, I hope it won’t be repeated.

    QUESTION:

    From what you said, is it fair to assume then that the British Government has no view on whether Australia decides to become a republic when you say that it is a matter purely for the Australian Queen, the Australian people and Government?

    PRIME MINISTER KEATING:

    I think the Prime Minister has made clear to you his view that the appropriate policy here is between the Australian people, its Government and the Queen of Australia and that is a matter to be worked out through the processes of Australia by its people and its Government with the Queen of Australia.

    QUESTION:

    ….the Queen …Australia tomorrow?

    PRIME MINISTER KEATING:

    I think as warm as friendly as the last one she gave me when I saw her last.

    QUESTION:

    Would you care to have a wager about the outcome of the IOC next week?

    PRIME MINISTER KEATING:

    We do have an interest in it, both of us. I am sure I can’t say anything beyond that which would be entirely predictable and that is that we think Sydney is by far the best technical bid; no doubt that will be disputed by the Prime Minister.

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    I am looking forward to seeing the Prime Minister in Monte Carlo and buying him a consolation drink.