Secretary-General's press stakeout with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown [full transcript]

I had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on a number of issues, including the forthcoming G-20 Summit meeting.

I highly commend the leadership that Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been demonstrating as the chair of the G-20 Summit meeting to address the financial crisis, and hope that the Summit meeting will have a great, successful result under your dynamic leadership.

I also appreciate the support the UK Government has extended to the objectives [that] the United Nations is trying to bring to the G-20 forum.

I relayed my concern to Prime Minister Gordon Brown that the economic crisis continues to grow in severity and threatens to evolve into a crisis of political instability and social unrest in many parts of the world.

We agreed that we must not allow this crisis to erode the progress we have already made toward the Millennium Development Goals. Social recovery will take much longer than economic recovery. A child taken out of school today will bear the consequences for the rest of his or her life.

I outlined to the Prime Minister the four areas where I believe G-20 countries need to show strong leadership: First, G-20 countries should commit to sustaining an international stimulus package, on top of their own national stimulus packages. This international stimulus needs to be of a very substantial size, commensurate with the challenge.

It needs to comprise aid for the poorest and most vulnerable countries, long-term public lending from the multilateral development banks, and liquidity support not only to least developed countries but also middle income developing countries.

This comprehensive package will be possible if existing commitments are met, including those made in Gleneagles to increase aid, and new resources are also mobilized.

Second, we agreed on the need to stand firm against protectionism and reinvigorate the Doha trade round so that it delivers real benefits for developing countries.

Third, we agreed that G-20 leaders must support a greening of the global economy, including in poorer countries, and that they should commit themselves to sealing a deal at climate talks in Copenhagen in December this year.

Finally, we discussed how to reform global rules and institutions so that they reflect today's economic and political landscape.

I am hopeful that the London Summit meeting can send a signal of solidarity and hope to all peoples and countries of the world.

We also discussed the humanitarian situation in Sudan, and also the situations in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, and other peace building efforts. I expect to continue my engagement on these issues in the next two weeks when I travel to Moscow, Doha, The Hague, London, Paris and Istanbul. Thank you very much.

PM Brown: Can I first of all thank the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his leadership. I want to thank him for what he has sought to achieve in Gaza. I want to thank him for the work that he is doing with us in Afghanistan and the development programme that the United Nations is involved in. I want to say that the humanitarian agencies that are working in Sudan should be allowed to stay there and continue their work and that the United Nations report that has been released with the Sudanese Government yesterday shows the damage that is being done to the people of the region as a result of the failure of humanitarian agencies to be able to exist and work in that country.

We have talked about the G20. And we have talked about the Secretary-General's presence at the meeting to do as he says to represent the voices of the poorest countries in the world. A hundred million people are being pushed into poverty, a half a million more children will die as a result of the failure of our system to be able to provide enough food and help and medical aid for them. Therefore it is urgent at the G20 Summit that we take action to help the problems of the poorest and I look forward to Ban Ki-moon's contribution to the G20 meeting.

I think we are recognising that the Washington consensus on economic policy is over, that the old world has gone, that we have got to build a new consensus on economic development for the future and the message to every country, I think, is that doing nothing is no longer an option. And we will have to take action in London to make sure that the banking system is reformed, to ensure ourselves that our financial institutions can come to the aid of the poorest countries and to make sure that we do what is necessary to ensure that there is strong growth and recovery and particularly jobs in the world economy as a result of the actions that we take.

I have said to Ban Ki-moon that our duty is to help every country of the world and to recognise the inter-dependence of the world economy, that banks are entangled with each other and there is no solution that is not a global solution that requires global standards for the banking system around the world. And it is with the determination of the United Nations to see action that I now go to Brazil and to Chile and to meet leaders in Latin America as we complete the process of consultation that I hope will lead to a successful outcome at the G20.

As I repeat, doing nothing is not an option and we and the world community have to show the world that when there is difficulty we act, when there is suffering we are prepared to take the action that is necessary and when there is need we are prepared to meet it.

Q: Prime Minister, do you agree with the Governor of the Bank of England that we now need to be very cautious and that we in Britain can't afford to spend any more money on another fiscal stimulus or anything else?

PM Brown: What the Governor of the Bank of England said yesterday is that targeted action may indeed be necessary in the future and I think what everybody agrees is that it's the combination of the fiscal measures we are taking, the cuts in interest rates that have happened, the quantitative easing that has now been done by the Bank of England, and the international action we'll take over the next few weeks, that will make the difference, so I say to you we will do whatever it takes to make sure that we have a strong recovery.

Q: Mr. Prime Minister, we understand now that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is heading to the G20 - what importance do you attach to the participation of Arab countries although they are rich countries, but their economies are small by comparison?

PM Brown: I talked to King Abdullah a few days ago. I said that I hoped he would be able to come to the G20 Summit. He is very welcome at the Summit and we look forward to talking to him about the contribution that we can all make to the financial stability of the world, to greater economic growth in the world and to the plight of some of the poorest countries in the world and on all these issues I know that King Abdullah will want to play his full part in our discussions.

Q: ... the Secretary-General is asking the G20 to approve a trillion dollar stimulus plan for developing countries. Do you think that kind of amount of resources is feasible and secondly, how can you pressure Sudan to take back the humanitarian aid workers?

PM Brown: Let me deal with the second point first. It is very important that we send a message to the President of Sudan that humanitarian agencies are doing vital work. His Government now recognises that hundreds of thousands of people are going to be displaced, many are to be without food, many are to be homeless as a result of the loss of the humanitarian agencies' work in Sudan and so even at this stage I want the whole world to ask him to remove the ban on humanitarian agencies, to recognise that they are absolutely essential to the protection of people in Sudan and at the same time of course we want the rebels and the Government to work together to get a political solution to this crisis.

On the issue of the Summit, we will want to give support to the poorest countries. We will want also to be in a position, where the banking system has failed in countries which cannot themselves pay for or support the reconstruction of that banking system, that through the international institutions we are going to be able to help them. And we will want also through the World Bank and its proposals for a vulnerability fund to do more to help those who are in poverty on top of what is done by the Millennium Development Goals. So the combination of what we do will be substantial, but of course I have got to talk to the different countries about what contributions they are prepared to make and I cannot, and I don't think it is possible for me, to put a figure on that at the moment.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, you have been quoted as saying you will ask the G-20 for one trillion dollars, to help the developing world deal with the financial crisis. That works out to fifty billion dollars per country. Can you confirm this? And Prime Minister Brown, is that a realistic target given the current state of the finances of the G-20 countries?

SG: First of all, I have written a letter to all G-20 leaders about my ideas and thinking about how the international community, in coordination, can address this economic crisis. My position is that, while I would welcome the G-20 leaders to formulate their national stimulus packages, they should never lose sight of the challenges and plight of the developing countries, particularly the most vulnerable, poor countries. This position of the United Nations is the one to which I have listened from all 192 countries during my informal General Assembly meeting. That I really wanted to convey and reflect on the basis of the wishes of the Member States. I am sure that the G-20 leaders will reflect and consider positively on addressing these issues.

On the exact amount of aid, of course you know I had some ideas, but at this time I'm not in a position to say anything in exact amount terms, but that depends upon how leaders can discuss these issues. As the Prime Minister just said, this needs to be discussed and debated among the leaders. My position is that the G-20 leaders, particularly the G-8, have to implement the Gleneagles commitment, and if we utilize all existing mechanisms, existing commitments, and with more resources mobilized, then I think this can be an achievable and doable one. But that I am going to discuss with the leaders there.

PM Brown: I think the discussion is about what we can do, first of all, to help those countries that have problems with their financial systems and make sure that their banking systems can properly serve the people. We have got to also make sure that the trading system around the world, which is not functioning properly, where trade is declining, that we can help those countries who want to trade but don't have the facilities, the export credits, and the trade credits to do so. But we must also help with what is being called the vulnerability fund, help those people and those countries that are in particular difficulty as a result of what has happened. Now nobody is in a position to give a figure about what that means, but what I can say is in each of these areas we are making progress in our discussion with other countries.

Thank you.