Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - June 4, 2000
Justice Malala
Speaking at the conclusion of a two-day conference of left-leaning world leaders invited by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the heads of state adopted Mbeki's stance that the AIDS debate had failed to take into consideration Africa-specific issues in the disease's spread.
The leaders will specifically take into consideration Mbeki's belief that in Africa poverty and the lack of action on tuberculosis and malaria - the continent's biggest killer - are at the centre of the spread of AIDS.
Clinton, who held talks with Mbeki in the US last week, said: "We agreed that those of us who are members of the G8 will emphasise these issues, particularly the impact of TB and malaria in relation to AIDS."
In their final communiqu , the leaders said: "We support an increased focus on resources in health infrastructure. We also commit to increasing our contributions to vaccine and immunisation efforts that assist the poorest countries and fostering the development of new vaccines and immunisations to prevent diseases such as TB, malaria and HIV/AIDS."
The summit was aimed at defining a "Third Way" for progressive governments in the new globalised economy. Mbeki was the only African leader invited.
Participating leaders included Argentina's Fernando de la Rua, Brazil's Fernando Cardoso, Canada's Jean Chretien, Chile's Ricardo Lagos, France's Lionel Jospin, Greece's Costas Simitis, Italy's Giuliano Amato, New Zealand's Helen Clark, Sweden's Goran Persson and Portugal's Antonio Guterres.
Mbeki's influence on the meeting was publicly acknowledged by three of the leaders at the end of the conference. Jospin said Mbeki had reminded the meeting that globalisation may leave others, particularly the poor in developing countries, behind.
Guterres said "Mbeki had been very clear" that the world had to work towards "engineering" new solutions and mechanisms for its problems.
On Friday, Mbeki told CNN television news that there were no differences between him and Clinton on AIDS. He said the Centre for Disease Control, the US government's disease thinktank, had agreed to host a conference of "so-called" dissident and orthodox scientists to sort out their differences on the science of AIDS.
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