Australia’s G20 ‘B-List’ status downplayed

14 Mar 2009, 9:47 am   -   Source: AAP
Share This
Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan has arrived for a G20 Finance Ministers meeting in England (AAP)

Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan has arrived for a G20 Finance Ministers meeting in England (AAP)

The British government brushed off claims that it has relegated Australia to a ‘low priority’ group of countries for April's G20 summit on the global economic crisis.

RELATED

The British government brushed off claims that it has relegated Australia to a ‘low priority’ group of countries for April's G20 summit on the global economic crisis.

A report in the Financial Times on Friday said secret government documents had put Australia and six other countries on a "B-list" because they were not deemed important lobbying targets ahead of the summit in London on April 2.

Eleven countries, including the United States, France, Germany, South Korea, Brazil and South Africa were named as "high priority states" for lobbyists to target.

Hierarchy downplayed

But a Foreign Office spokeswoman played down the significant of the so-called A and B list countries.

"We continue to have strong and deep relations with Australia and this list in no way represents a hierarchy of our political relations with those (11) states," she told AAP.

"This is a very indicative list and based on the prevalence and scale of well-developed non-governmental organisations, media, civil society, academia, trade unions and non-traditional actors like sovereign wealth funds, not on how objectively important or not each country and its government were, either to the UK more widely or in a G20 context."

A ‘PR issue’

The newspaper said the confidential documents were part of a tender issued last December by the British government's Central Office of Information on behalf of the Foreign Office "for the supply of PR services for the London summit".

The government wanted PR companies and lobbyists to help the Foreign Office lobby G20 countries and launch media campaigns before the leaders from the world's 20 biggest economies met in
London.

The tender documents said the "11 high priority states" would be the main focus for lobbying, while those in Tier 2 would receive less attention, the newspaper said.

Early talks underway

News of the secret papers came as G20 finance ministers, including Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan, arrived in southern England on Friday for two days of talks on saving the global economy.

Australian officials are understood not to be concerned about Australia being relegated to the "B list" of countries.

But Britain's shadow foreign affairs spokesman William Hague said the apparent downgrading of some G20 summit participants "sends completely the wrong message".

"In particular it is wrong for Commonwealth countries such as Australia and Canada to be put into the so-called second tier," he told the FT.

 

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube