Danes fear Durban problems threaten climate summit

Tuesday, 21 April 2009 10:36

--Foreign minister and PM call for nations to work together despite difficulties in order to achieve global results

With many countries considering leaving the Durban Review Conference, the 2009 United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), in Geneva, Switzerland after Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s inflammatory speech against Israel, Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller said he fears the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen may be in jeopardy.

Representatives for several countries at the Durban conference, including Denmark, walked out of the auditorium in protest of Ahmadinejad’s speech, which called Israel ‘a cruel and repressive racist regime’.

Per Stig Møller, Foreign Minister of Denmark.

Møller has used the climate summit as an argument against boycotting the racism

conference last weekend, saying that the participation of European Union countries in particular was crucial in securing the confidence necessary to reach the summit’s ambitious goals.

Denmark decided to participate in the conference, while several of its allies such as the US, Israel, Germany and The Netherlands stayed away. But Møller argued that Monday evening’s incident has damaged the United Nations’ credibility.

‘One of the issues I raised was that if EU countries didn’t participate or intensive alliances couldn’t be trusted, how much will other countries trust us leading up to the climate summit?’

Prime Minister Rasmussen is expected to publicly back Møller’s position today - a move opposition parties support.

‘We’re certainly not interested in the boycott trend spreading to the climate summit in Copenhagen,’ said Mogens Lykketoft, the Social Democrat foreign relations spokesman.

‘If that happens, there won’t be any results.’

If participating nations do not carry out a full boycott, the Durban racism conference is scheduled to continue through Thursday.   (Sources: RC News, Copenhagen Post online)