Tag Archives: Helen Clark

UNDP’s Helen Clark says it is not difficult to draw up an inventory of global institutions and mechanisms which are struggling to reach decisions: The veto power in the UN Security Council can be a block to decisive action. The annual meetings of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have often struggled …

Should New Zealand move quickly to recognise China’s status as a “market economy” to strike an advantaged relationship with the world’s rising economic superpower? That question is not top of the agenda for the Seriously Asia forum in Parliament this week – but it is one of the goals up for debate. Access to Asia’s growth motor, and the concessions …

Hu Jintao’s calm face softened as he spoke poignantly of his greatest challenge since becoming President of China seven months ago. “I felt as if my heart was on fire.” He was talking of the Sars epidemic, which claimed hundreds of lives as the new Chinese leadership fought to bring “this scourge” under control. The virus originated in southern China. …