Tony Blair and Thabo Mbeki press conference

Tony Blair and Thabo Mbeki press conference; - So I think next week is potentially a very big week indeed and I would only simply say to those who often question the value of such summits, if it weren't for the fact that we were all assembled in Germany next week at Heiligendamm I don't think, well let me put this diplomatically - rewind - put it like this, I think having the G8 summit next week in Germany has been a great help in securing things like for example a 15 billion dollar increase in the commitment America is giving to tackling HIV-Aids, the announcement yesterday by Germany that it is going to increase by 3 billion euros its aid to Africa over the next 4 years, and also the major steps forward that we have seen in the last 48 hours on climate change - So I think it gives us an opportunity to come together and to make sure that that process that was started at Gleneagles is given a big impetus forward / So thank you Mr President for your leadership on these issues - Obviously we have gone through other regional issues as well, Zimbabwe, Sudan and so on and had good discussions on all these things - And I would just like to finish where you began, which is on the bilateral relationship and thank you very much for everything you have done to strengthen that relationship over the past decade - It is just worth pointing out that the two-way trade between our two countries today is some 6 billion pounds a year, there were something like 15 billion pounds worth of British investment in South Africa in 2005 alone, this is a huge commercial and trading relationship - And of course one of the reasons that that is so is because over the past few years under your leadership South Africa has prospered, its economy has grown, it is seen as a great place to come and invest / So I think there are some very strong pointers there for the future and I am certainly glad as I leave office to leave our bilateral relationship in a very strong state