Transcripts For ALJAZ Talk To Al Jazeera Stef Blok 20240712

Are going to attack this idea of the nomination on the basis that it could well jeopardize the Affordable Health care act shes making the point that the Supreme Court on november the 10th will hear a case which is called texas against california which is a vote of protecting preexisting conditions she says that if there is a conservative majority on the court particularly with someone like amy expressed concern about the Affordable Health care act or obamacare as it became widely known that then that thing is at risk and shes hoping that that might ple into Public Opinion outside the chamber russias foreign minister has indicated that turkey will not be involved in peace talks over the disputed region of nagano color back as a by john has proposed its ally turkey be involved in discussions armenia and azerbaijan are accusing each other of violating a humanitarian cease fire. Funerals have been held in the us a by Johnny Village of here for the victims of sundays attacks on the city of ganja at least 9 people were killed and 34 others were wounded by shelling in the early hours of the morning hundreds have been killed across the region since fighting flared at the end of last month an undercover investigation biologist see it has exposed high ranking officials in cyprus expressing a willingness to aid convicted criminals to obtain e. U. Citizenship they told us the Investigative Unit released the cyprus papers which revealed serious flaws in the countrys citizen by Investment Program e. U. Foreign ministers say theyre ready to sanction belorussian president Alexander Lukashenko the e. U. Has already sanctioned 40 other belorussian officials those are the headlines coming up next on aljazeera its talk to all jazeera good buy. Im counting the cost etc from the pandemic who will pay to get vaccines to the worlds poorest in kastrup zimbabwe strike oil using drilling reports in the 1990 s. And whats behind chinas plan to lift 1000000000 people into the middle class. Counting the cost on aljazeera. Was called to. See. The netherlands its known for its liberal and innovative policies including being one of the 1st countries to legalize prostitution euthanasia and same sex marriage. Its also one of the worlds most vibrant economists a Founding Member of the United Nations and the European Union and has the clout to play a role in global affairs. Im james plays at the un in new york on this edition of talk to aljazeera we connect with the foreign minister of the netherlands as we review global crises from belo roost in the corner karabakh the dynamics between the u. S. And china and the geopolitical race between russia and turkey of course those coded 19 brics it and the e. U. Is attempts to achieve a unified Foreign Policy we get the dutch perspective to step talks to aljazeera. Steff bloc foreign minister of the kingdom of the netherlands thank you for joining us here on talk to aljazeera if i can start this interview and its in a rather a negative way by looking at the state of the world we have a 1000000 people around the world who died from coronavirus we have the worst recession this century we have a Climate Crisis we have growing nationalism and racism and really it seems a lack of International Leadership its a very grim picture isnt it well if youre painted dead way its great. And of calls true but i think its not the whole picture and i think we still can conclude that the world has seen tremendous of funds over the past decades. Because of a number of factors of course that are not a Technological Developments developments in health care but also International Cooperation and indeed International Cooperation is not running as smoothly as we would like it to be not running as smoothly as its might have been about a decade ago but still very much worthwhile fighting for because of the progress that weve seen. Ok lets look at some of those issues in depth 1st let me take you back 75 years your country the netherlands had been liberated it was a free country once again after nazi occupation it was also a founder member of the United Nations 75 years on i dont know if youll agree that system appears to be creaking coded 19 was the big test and let me quote you from the u. N. Secretary general antonio could terrorists he spoke during a high level week at the u. N. Here in new york in a Security Council meeting he says the pandemic is a clear test of International Cooperation a test we have essentially failed he said the death toll was the result of a lack of global preparedness cooperation unity and solidarity would you agree i fully agree but what you mentioned and what secretary General Gutierrez said about the u. N. And not achieving all the goals that he would like them to achieve. But lets be proud of what we achieved and realize that there are again in this time children hungry living in a situation of war and that it is our obligation to make the u. N. To make International Organizations work as best as we can when it comes to covert 19 that as we say is the big test let me just give you an example of where things in the u. N. System dont seem to working it took the u. N. Security council over 3 months to agree a simple Security Council resolution on the virus and to agree with the idea that the secretary general put forward that there should be a global ceasefire why on earth does it take 3 months to agree with things that surely if youre the premier body dealing with International Peace and security should be something you agree with straight away. There are a number of reasons there to answer your question why decision taking in the Security Council is so difficult even in a case of a Global Pandemic but ben demick indys days also becomes politicized and barto fulfil International Power play nevertheless we see International Cooperation for instance countries been doing together in providing aid in working to get our own Development Facts in this and i want to put all my energy and efforts in making Di International corporations that work did it offer possibilities to flourish in fighting to spend demick and not just let myself be be completely blocked by what is not working. That blockage at the beginning seems to be mainly a spat between china and the us now the e. U. Broadly still supports the World Health Organization the us has pulled out of the World Health Organization do the u. S. Have a base of a point on this with regards to china that the World Health Organization has a china problem because it seems to be that World Health Organization officials seemed very reluctant to criticize china. We asked Health Organization to do a thorough and. Impartial investigation into into the start of the bend into to measure a step that Different Countries and International Organizations have taken and know god terror reasons to be critical of things that happened in this procedure but where i dont agree with us is dead stepping out of rules Health Organization Decision Making Organization Better and we need in a pandemic cooperation more than ever we need to inform each other about different for your facing about what works and what distant work so also told directly to my u. S. France. I understand a lot of your criticism but but leaving the team is never a solution for a team that doesnt play well we have to improve the team now the route between china and the u. S. Goes way beyond coded 19 how worried are you about it how damaging is it and could it be the beginning of a new cold war. I am worried about. Rising tensions between the u. S. And china. Because d we are not afraid to speak out openly about things that we dont agree with i recently had had a very open meeting with him my chinese colleague here in the hake where i spoke out in favor of the we were community in the. Civil liberties in hong kong. Most whole very open about to defect that the Ditch Companies face in their intellectual property issues whenever day operate within china i want to be very open when thats necessary at the table same time i believe that we should engage with china on debt we should in order to avoid what you mentioned a possible new acoa cold war and. Look for solutions to get her for instance we do cooperate strongly in the field of fighting Climate Change which is a global issue there are very beneficial corporations in the Business World in the scientific world. We need to create more common interest in order to avoid to do world breaking up into parts you are the foreign minister i know not to finance minister but id like to draw on your background a little because you used to work in finance you used to work in banking as you look at the global recession the world is facing what are your fears how lost do you think this will be a lesson from the past is Debt International traits and movement of people as soon as the pandemic will allow it to again it is essential for International Prosperity so we should not full back into protectionism and we. It take to write economic measures with which for now means. Spending to support economy in our countries but also Work Together to help countries in a more dire situation you say that you should work to help countries in a more dos situation but already within the European Union you have had disagreements youll one of the countries the socalled frugal for along with austria sweden and denmark is there at home there in the netherlands a reluctance to keep bailing out of the e. U. Members. And its fairy much part of the public debate. Especially what steps should be connected to helping fellow European Countries. Dutch public feels itself very much a gates in europe we are in the midst of it 3 part of it we are trading country you are an open country we want to be part of the European Union at the same time in netherlands weve taken really tough measures during the financial creases crisis for instance raising pension h. And ordinary dutchmen will have to work till 6768 so did the question people ask here is if we help other European Countries do they also work till 6768 to do they also take measures to keep their economy competitive i think thats a thats a fair question because you want to get out of it stronger for the whole of europe i think to agreement we reached it during july summit boss and fair agreement because it contains both help for the most affected countries but also to commission to reform their economy in order to come out of the crisis storm for the netherlands with these sorts of disputes financial disputes in the before brets is when you have the u. K. Another g 7 country in youll call it fighting the same arguments as you indeed we we dearly miss our british friends. Of course we respect the outcome of of their u. K. Referendum but that is a divorce we didnt us for that also means that the netherlands plays an even more active role in fighting for what we stand for forming coalitions with treats are coalitions of different European Countries because we want to fight for what he thinks is important not only in the field to finance and economic but for instance also with regard to the rule of law and human rights. 2 years ago your country was serving only u. N. Security council the u. N. Security council is still dealing with the off to my office of what was known as the arab spring particularly in syria in libya and in yemen when you look whats happened in syria today and no one is keeping count there are somewhere between 200008 half a 1000000 People Killed how do you think that history will judge the u. N. And the Security Council in particular during our term industry curity council and the netherlands together with a lot of other countries frequently us the Security Council to acts. For instance to to revert. Miss r. And then the syrian leadership to the International Criminal court to open the country for humanitarian help and im afraid youre right. It waltz. Actually impossible to take such steps so dare history they will rightfully be very critical of what has been achieved so far. That was an important reason by the netherlands decided to holts the Syrian Government responsible for International Law for violation of human rights and especially. The file nation off the International Treaty against torture is that its all coming to your new proposal and what youre doing in just a moment but id just like to explore a little bit longer your time there on the Security Council and i personally remember one speech where you held up a picture of a little 7 Year Old Girl nor i suppose shed be about 10 years old now someone who like many young syrians has never seen anything but conflict in her country can i ask you as one of those ministers whose countries were serving on the Security Council what it was like going to those syria meetings it must have been incredibly frustrating. It was incredibly frustrating you know you are completely rights because before you go to a meeting of course you have an expectation about what the outcome will be and its expectation valse realistic look not very hopeful at the same time you realize that effect that you are as a country member of a Security Council means you have to possibility to speak up for it is this little girl noor and all the little boys or girls like her and that therefore you should speak up for her now i interrupted you was when you came up with the netherlands his new proposal new action on syria can you explain to us how this is going to work do the last couple of years the netherlands work to get a written number of countries to assemble evidence on the horrible and misdeeds suffering that has been taking place and is still taking place in syria so we have a lot of of witness accounts of. Tape recordings of what has been going on there what people have experienced and we want to use this evidence to hold those people responsible rejean in the in syria. To hold them to a couch as the most logical way refer to the case to the International Criminal court in the hague was not possible because the un Security Council couldnt agree on it we were looking for baath weights and the route we found is the International Treaty against torture both syria and netherlands are party to destry t and this gives us the possibility to hold syria responsible of their history to which means that we now want to start talks with them. And in those stores we will also them to take their responsibility. We hope of course the thought of talks will be successful but if not we can refer to case to the International Court of justice here in the hague so the International Court of justice like the International Criminal court is based where you are in the hague that would be a very long winded process wouldnt it it went to the International Court of Justice International a judicial procedures take a long. But we know from history that they can be successful in indeed we have deprived president s in their lives of a number of International Courts one of them used to be to you were slave. Court and a number of the highest ranking officials have been tried and convicted here in the hague for the crimes they committed in the former you were slaves. This is incredibly important to to to survive for us to relatives of victims its also important to. Make it possible to work on the future because you need justice you need to open ness about what has happened to make it possible to reconstruct a society and a country and thats why we firmly believe that we have to stick to its step in syria it is necessary for defeat thems and their relatives but it is also necessary to make it possible to rebuild a new syrian society. I understand that the st