Boris Johnson and Antonio Guterres Briefings

Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for coming along. I want to begin by

thanking Secretary-General Gutierrez and the president. I want to learn

what makes this London conference on Somalia different. Too often in my

time as Foreign Secretary, I have attended conferences whose sole

purpose has been to apply sticking plaster to a wound, even while that

wound is still being inflicted. But what we have got in Somalia is

different. Yes, it is true that after decades of turmoil, Somalia

remains a wounded country. But it is in the process of being healed. And

thanks to the leadership of the president and his colleagues, thanks

to the courage and sacrifice of the forces and their Somali courses and

to the help being given by the international community. The

overriding aim of our work today is to accelerate the healing of the

country and to lay the foundations for a peaceful and prosperous

Somalia. That is why we have concluded a new security pact,

recognising the essential truth that piece is the first requirement of

any form of progress, particularly economic growth. The agreement

between the federal government and the regional administrations on a

national security model will give Somali forces clarity over command

and control, making them more effective and in time, allowing them

to take over in liberating areas from the terrorists of Al-Shabaab

and providing security thereafter. And in return for these vital

reforms being carried out by the Somalis, by the federal government

and the state authorities, the international community will provide

more help, particularly over the training of police and military

forces. We will improve the coordination of our work. In the new

partnership for Somalia, our Somali partners and the international

community have undertaken to work together and to hold each other to

account so that we deliver the support and reforms that Somalia

will need over the next four years and as we prepare for our shared

ambition of one person, one vote elections in 2021. Most importantly,

everyone at this conference acknowledged the severity of the

drought that Somalia is now enduring. At this moment Kerber over

6 million Somalis need emergency food supplies and nobody can forget

that the last time Somalia was blighted by famine in 2011, 260,000

people died. If we act early and decisively, and that disaster can

still be avoided. For this to happen, aid agencies must be free to

go wherever necessary in safety and without hindrance to distribute food

aid to all those in need. Britain is leading the way in responding to the

humanitarian crisis in Somalia in providing food, water and medicine

to over a million people. Together, we have come to this conference

determined to speed up the healing of Somalia's wound, recognising the

scale of the problems that remain, but determined to ensure that

Somalia and the Somali people can achieve the peace and prosperity

they deserve. I now hand over to President Farmajo. Good evening.

Today, the government of Somalia set out our priorities and plans,

together with our international partners who have committed to

support us. We agreed on a security pact and a new partnership for

Somalia in support of Somalia's national development plan, endorsing

the national partnership for Somalia is a great step forward for Somalia.

The national partnership for Somalia is a partnership based on the

principle of mutual accountability between our governments and its

international partners. A clear agreement on both our parts to work

together on a set of shared goals to bring lasting peace, stability and

prosperity to Somalia for the good of the Somali people. Our aim is to

fulfil Somalia's vision, to achieve a stronger, more secure, more

cooperative union that enhances equity and good governance for all

Somalis. But that cannot be achieved without secure Somalia.

You Today we have endorsed Somali-led and security pact with

our partners, based on an agreed vision on Somali-led institutions

and force that is are affordable, acceptable and accountable. It has

come to a realisation that Somalia needs bold and courageous steps from

our international partners. We need our partners to invest more directly

in our priorities and our country system. As this will strengthen

Government institutions and is critical for sustainability. Our

Government has committed change, the way we manage our economy. To work

together and work with a development of partners. We have committed to

another kind of partnership which also moves us forward and enables us

to grow a public-private partnership and my organisation will ensure a

concrete, concrete and tangible steps are taken to improve the

business environment. . Also, I'm pleased with the outcome of the

events that took place during this conference on the contribution of

the civil society to Somalia and recognise their collective role in

supporting be stability and prosperity in Somalia. Great things

are happening for Somalia and I'm so happy to be here, to witness it. My

people have a promise that my fairly new organisation is here for them

and their needs. Together we can achieve anything. Let's work

together, Somalia, and her friends, to tackle the challenges that come

our way. As I mentioned this morning, the expectations are very

high but not performing is not an option. Thank you all for being

here. I will now give the floor to the the excellent UN

Secretary-General. I thank you. Thank you, very much, first of all

to the Government of the United Kingdom, to Boris Johnson for having

had the initiative of this conference and to the president of

somal why for having created the political conditions that allowed it

to happen. And this conference was an unmitigated success. This

conference has created the conditions for an opportunity to

materialise, a opportunity that we cannot miss. An opportunity to take

Somalia out of decades of conflict, of poverty and of terrible suffering

for the Somali people. An opportunity to defeat terrorism and

to establish peace. An opportunity to allow for the build-up of

national Somalian institutions and lay the foundations of a normal

economic and social development process. And these opportunities are

possible because we have, in Somalia, a plan for the Government

and we have a strategy and plan that makes sense and is supported by the

international opportunity. But now for the opportunity not to be

missed, the international community needs to come together and to

massively support Somalia. First of all, responding to the appeals to

increase humanitarian aid to be able to face the dramatic challenges of

food economy and disease in the country. Second, to fully support

the Government in the build-up of institutions in particular, as it

was mentioned by the Foreign Secretary, the national army and the

national police force that need to be built in a co-ordinated way and

end the strategy of the Somali Government. The interests of the

international community is also to be able, in between, before the

national Ince stewings are able to fully protect the Somali people, the

international community must give strong and predictable financial and

equipment support to our mission, to the mission of the African Union,

that with enormous sacrifice and enormous courage, has been fighting

Shah Babb in very dramatic circumstances, but creating the

conditions that allow these conference and this opportunity to

take place, our mission deserves a much stronger support than the much

more predictable support from the international community and,

finally, it is very important for us all to be able to support the new

national development plan of Somali and to create the conditions for it

to be possible through all the instruments of Development

Corporation, including with the necessary technical mechanisms to be

put in place and the guarantees of sustainability, including an

effective process of debt relief. If the international community will be

able to respond to the challenge, I'm sure this opportunity will not

be missed and I'm sure that Somalia will be the success story we need in

our troubled world. Hear, hear. Thank you very much, Antonio,

Secretary-General, we will have a few questions now. Can I invite a

question from representatives, first of all, of the Somali media. Yes,

Universal? Until I miss my guess. My question, I will put in Somali

language for the benefit of the audience back home.

TRANSLATION: There is the third conference of London, this

conference is different from the other conference.

This one is special because there is the international community on in

conference and there is full support from the international community

that there was support the Somali attack. So if we work collectively

with the international community, the outcome of this conference will

be successful. We put a lot of emphasis on Somali's security pact.

And we came up with this security pact and the objective together to

defeat the terrorist groups and how we drive forward our community, also

to build the Somali national army, then once the community are

committed and they are with us to help us with both economy, Somali

economic recover rain also to build Somalian national defence army. Also

the national community knows that 40% of Somali's population is the

youth, so we want to do all, take the actions so that our youth

doesn't radicalise and go to Al-Shabab or illegal immigration.

Thank you. I will have a go at answering that too. I think I

understood the gist of the question. You are saying - what is the

difference between this conversation and proceeding coverses on Somali. A

perfectly fair question. There have been dozens since 2000. I think the

real difference and why this London conference is potentially so

important is that the president has come here today, representing not

just the federal Government of Somalia, but also, he's brought with

him, I think half a dozen presidents of the regional governments and they

have put on a wonderful show of unity and of their determination to

work together to deliver the security architecture. And I think

that's the thing I would personally single out as being most important

about this conference and what the international community wants to do

now is to back that security architecture and the strong her and

more robust it is, and we had some very powerful words today we heard,

then the more the international community will be able to come in

with support. So, we will be reviewing progress, obviously, in

October, but that is the big development for me, because it is

peace and the peace and security architecture that will be the

bedrock of prosperity. I think we'll go now to a representative of the UK

media and James Landale. The BBC? James Landale, BBC. First of all,

can I ask about the arms embargo, Mr President, can you explain why you

believe it is important that the arms embargo is lifted and Foreign

Secretary, can you explain why the international community is so

reluctant to do it. Foreign Secretary, can I ask you about the

humanitarian need? The United Nations says there is a short fall

of 900,000 dollars. What more will the British Government to do meet

that need? I have covered many conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, I

have been told about the importance of training up the army and police

force. With respect, it is a slow, patchy gradual process at best. How

can we be confident it is going to happen in time? Let me take that

first question. Well, it is a very valid question. The reality is

Al-Shabab has been active in Somalia for ten years and the reason we are

looking to rebuild, to reorganisation our army is because

of lack of equipment and weapons. Al-Shabab has AK-47 and the Somali

national army, national forces has the same equipment, the same

weapons. And that's why this war has been lingering for ten years and if

we don't have more sophisticated and better weaponry, definitely this war

will continue for another 10 years. That's why we would basically like

to see the arms embargo to be lifted and of course that's why we need the

international to help us in rebuilding Somali national army and

that's why we wanted to face the challenge of al-Shah Babb. Because

they are here in Somalia, they are in Somalia simply to destroy and

deny the opportunity, Government to function.

And to be part of the international community. So that's why we will

require. Why we want to see the arms #e78 barring yo to be lifted. But we

are not asking now that arms embargo to be lifted today but we are

requiring to have a road map and then a milestone to see that maybe

next year, in maybe in eight months after we meet all the requirements,

that arms embargo to be lifted. I agree very strongly with the

president that this is not the time to lift the arms embargo and we

shouldn't be thinking of doing it that way around. The priority has

got to be, as he rightly says, to get the forces to a condition

working with the regional authorities where they are able to

take on Al-Shabab and where they are able to engage their operations

where it has done so heroically and bravely over the last ten years and

that's what we are trying to achieve.