Focus
The opening remarks by Clive Alderton at the Press Briefing to announce TRH's Autumn Tour
13th October 2011
Good morning everyone, thanks for coming, we’re announcing the Autumn Tour. At Her Majesty’s Government’s request, The Prince of Wales will be visiting Gulf States on 1st November before travelling down to Southern Africa where he will be joined by The Duchess of Cornwall for a Commonwealth Tour. More specifically, His Royal Highness will visit Kuwait and Qatar; Their Royal Highnesses will visit South Africa and Tanzania. The visits were planned some months ago in the usual way through the Royal Visits Committee. From the Foreign Office this morning we’ve got Jon Davies – the Director responsible for our foreign policy in the Middle East – he will say something about Kuwait and Qatar. John Dennis – who is responsible for policy towards Southern, Central and West Africa – will speak about South Africa and Tanzania.As usual, let me just set the context for this Visit before asking the Foreign Office to say a little more about the Government’s Objectives and Priorities in asking Their Royal Highnesses to do these visits. Building on our historic friendships, Britain is working closely with partner countries in the Gulf and Middle East to ensure that the changes brought about by the “Arab Spring” are changes for better. You will all recall that The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall visited Morocco earlier this year as part of that engagement. The Prince’s visits to Kuwait and Qatar are a natural further building block, given the centrality of Middle Eastern issues to our foreign policy and, of course, long-standing close relationships between our own Royal Family and the Ruling Families of the region. There is a specific reason for visiting Kuwait at this time: this year, the country is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary of independence from the UK and the twentieth anniversary of its liberation from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Since these two Gulf State visits take place within a single day – 1st November – The Duchess of Cornwall will not join His Royal Highness but will travel direct to South Africa and join him there for a seven day Commonwealth Tour.
The Commonwealth Tour comes straight after the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting which The Queen will be attending in Australia together with the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary. The focus on South Africa needs little explanation, given the importance of that country within Africa and more widely within the international community as a key member of the G20, the African Union and the United Nations. There is rather a special reason for visiting Tanzania: it will be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary of Independence from the UK. As President Kikwete was kind enough to say the other day, the visit by The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall is going to be the highlight of these important celebrations.
Despite the differences between the various countries being visited, the themes of each visit are similar and we make no apologies for that. First and foremost, you will see a clear focus on what the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary describe as the Government’s “Prosperity” agenda. You will know better than me that the British public consistently rate “batting for Britain overseas” as one of the most important things the Royal Family do in the national interest. However exhausting those tours may be – and this one, covering 16,000 miles in 10 days, is set to be no exception – but as ever the Royal Family are clear about the importance of this work. So on this tour, by creating opportunities for British business people overseas, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall will again be supporting the fast and strong recovery of Britain’s economy, and so protecting the jobs and livelihoods of as many of our citizens as possible. There will be the usual State and ceremonial events. In addition, in the Commonwealth countries, Development issues will be to the fore – in Tanzania, for example, the British Development Assistance Programme is running at an average of £160 million a year until 2015. So it’s hard to overstate the importance of those development priorities to the British Government.
The Prince of Wales, having recently become President of the World Wildlife Fund in the UK will also be looking at issues of conservation and Endangered Species which, of course, also feed into the Development agenda given their importance to remote, rural communities in South Africa and Tanzania, traditional lifestyles and, crucially, their livelihoods and their ability to support themselves.
Kuwait
On Kuwait I don’t want to steal Jon Davies’ thunder and have already mentioned the double anniversary celebration. The Prince of Wales will be the guest of the Amir, who is hosting a State lunch for His Royal Highness and there will be an event to mark the Independence anniversary. Other engagements, as I describe in more detail in a moment, focus on the business community (our trade with Kuwait is worth $2billion a year). There’ll be a military cooperation theme and also the democratic model, which the Kuwaiti Parliament provides.
South Africa
John Dennis will have much more to say about bilateral relations with South Africa – President Zuma has also, of course, recently been on a State Visit to the United Kingdom. Given the proximity to the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) and G20 meetings, during which President Zuma will be overseas, so the Acting President is likely to be Their Royal Highnesses’ host.
We will tackle the “Prosperity” agenda in a number of different ways. In addition to creating high-level networking opportunities for British business, at a number of different events, The Prince of Wales will bring together senior business leaders to look at their corporate approaches to climate change and share best practice. The timing could not be better: you will all know that the Durban Climate Summit – COP17 – opens in South Africa a little over a fortnight after the Royal Visit. The Prince of Wales will be giving a speech on these issues at the University of Cape Town, building on His Royal Highness’s speeches earlier this year to the European Parliament and in Washington DC immediately after Prince William’s wedding. While we’re in Pretoria and Johannesburg Their Royal Highnesses will visit the office of former President Nelson Mandela. Mandela, now aged 93, has retired to his home village and is no longer receiving official visitors but his wife, Graca Machel, plans to show Their Royal Highnesses some of the extraordinary archives which chronicle her husband’s dark years of imprisonment on Robben Island and introduce some of the children who have benefitted from the work of the Mandela Children’s Fund in some of the most difficult townships around Johannesburg.
The next day we’re going to Kwazulu Natal. The logistics of getting to KwaZulu-Natal continue to pose us some challenges but we hope to overcome them for two reasons:
i) Our Government and, indeed, Their Royal Highnesses, place great importance on showing respect for other cultures and traditions. The King of the Zulus is celebrating the fortieth anniversary of his accession and a Zulu welcome in KZN is planned.
ii) South Africa is a country still in social and economic transition following the end of Apartheid. We will be visiting a project supported by WWF which is principally about avoiding the extinction of Endangered Species - in this case the black rhino. But built around this core objective is a very interesting and successful transfer of land rights from the former White landowners to the local black community. We will be highlighting the way this works incredibly well in partnership with representation from both sides. The sustainable use of funds generated from visitors to the Game Reserve to build local schools and clinics (some of which we will see) and the creation of a highly successful partnership between local authorities, former land owners, current land owners, the private sector and NGOs such as WWF for the sustainable management of this pretty amazing natural resource. Needless to say it’s a very different story from the transfer of land rights in neighbouring Zimbabwe. The success of this South African model is so impressive that it’s being rolled out more widely across Africa and as far afield as India. I do not want to pretend that there have not been problems along the way and we will be looking at how they have been overcome, including some innovative approaches to tackling the huge problem of poaching of Endangered Species, given the high illegal market value of their body parts.
The South African leg of the Tour ends in Cape Town where, as I mentioned, The Prince of Wales will give a speech on climate change and sustainability in the run up to the Durban Climate Summit. Their Royal Highnesses will also visit Townships where, separately in order to cover more ground, The Prince of Wales will look at an international award winning Clean Development Mechanism project under the Kyoto Protocols (which has converted an entire Township to solar power – an incredibly impressive sight). The conversion to solar panels has transformed the community and what they now spend on energy. It’s the first international United Nations Gold Standard winning project of that nature. The Duchess of Cornwall will focus on social issues and literacy. The Prince will also highlight youth opportunities, given the immense problem of youth unemployment. Their Royal Highnesses will then attend a predominantly business-focussed reception again focusing on the Prosperity agenda of the Prime Minister, which I mentioned earlier.
On Sunday, as always, Their Royal Highnesses will attend a Service at Cape Town Cathedral. We hope Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be able to attend, he has said he would like to and then we depart for Tanzania.
Tanzania
Tanzania has an impressive track record on democratic government and transfers of political power. The President has invited Their Royal Highnesses to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Independence as I mentioned. In Dar Es Salaam, the anniversary will be marked by a Parade. Their Royal Highnesses will attend a series of development-focussed engagements to highlight the excellent work of DFID and attend a State Dinner hosted by President and Mrs. Kikwete.
The second day in Tanzania is devoted to Zanzibar - a predominantly Muslim island, where we will be looking at the harmonious way in which people of different cultures and faiths having been living together and working side by side for centuries. The whole Tour ends in Kilimanjaro where Their Royal Highnesses will visit a Masaai village and hear about the ways in which traditional Masaai lifestyles and livelihoods are being threatened by climate change and how they are adapting. After that there will be a further focus on business opportunities and young entrepreneurs before seeing conservation work in Arusha National Park. Needless to say, the National Parks are a vital source of revenue not just in Tanzania but in South Africa as well. But it is at the specific request of the Tanzanian Government that Their Royal Highnesses will be seeing, briefly, the beauty of the Park and its wildlife.
Further information
Read the full press release