Blair: Global policy must be inclusive

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned American students that first-world nations should leave developing countries behind at their own peril.

In a speech at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, Mr Blair said the implosion of old economic models and markets offered an opportunity to create a new, more inclusive global economic architecture.

“’Global community’ is a cliche, because it’s true,” Mr Blair said. “People must come together, not just in traditional alliances, but ones that bring together the developed and developing world. These types of alliances will be different, broader and united by a shared purpose.”

Speaking to students who filled the gymnasium at the Catholic university, Mr Blair said world leaders needed to reform organisations like the United Nations Security Council and the G8 to be more representative of the changing global balance of power.

He said efforts by leaders of the developed nations to solve the economic crisis or environmental issues among themselves would prove futile if they did not engage others.

“There is no way we can deal with the environment except in co-operation with the emerging markets of the East,” Mr Blair said.

“If we shut down the whole of the UK tomorrow so we had zero emissions, the growth in China would make up for it in 18 months; their population would grow by more than the whole of Britain’s in 18 months.”

He urged students to become the next generation of leaders by adopting a set of “global values” that included a belief in freedom, democracy, justice and the power of community.

Mr Blair also alluded to his more recent roles as the head of The Tony Blair Faith Foundation and as international special envoy to the Quartet on the Middle East, a group composed of representatives from the United Nations, the European Union, the US and Russia.

“There is nothing more important, nothing more fundamental, nothing more urgent for the stability of that region than the resolving of the Israel-Palestinian conflict,” he said.

Speaking about the new US administration, Mr Blair said he sympathised with President Barack Obama and knew how it felt to take office after an opposing party had been in power for years.

He said Mr Obama should champion more engagement with China and India.

“There is virtually nothing more important for the new US president than to get the right strategic alliance with China,” he said.

Mr Blair’s lecture was part of the World Leaders Forum of the John C Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations.