FORMER TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has again teamed up with his partner in the Northern Ireland peace process, Tony Blair, in an effort to resolve the long-running conflict in the Basque region of Spain.
The two former leaders are members of a special sub-group of the World Economic Forum devoted to conflict prevention. Mr Ahern is currently attending a meeting of the forum sub-groups, known as the Network of Global Agenda Councils, in Abu Dhabi.
This annual “brainstorming” event helps to shape the agenda for the January gathering of the forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Speaking to The Irish Timesin Abu Dhabi yesterday, Mr Ahern said his particular council also had "virtual meetings every 10 days or so: the members connect online across the world visually, using the internet".
He takes part in the meetings from his office at St Luke’s in Drumcondra or from his home. “I have been involved since I left office 3½ years ago.”
Regarding his work in the Basque Country, he said: “I have been in San Sebastian a number of times this year and last year with the permission of the Spanish government.”
He had also been on a conflict resolution mission to the Niger Delta and he is due to visit Jordan in a few weeks’ time as part of the effort to bring peace to the Middle East.
“I have done a lot of this stuff over the [years], a lot of it has to be quiet. I have put a lot of work and a lot of travel into it and a lot of it has to be confidential by its nature,” he said.
Mr Ahern was invited to join by Prof Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the forum. A spokeswoman for the Swiss-based organisation said council members were paid travel expenses but no fees.
Other members include former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, senior UN official Judy Cheng-Hopkins and Prof Daniel Shapiro from the Harvard International Negotiation Programme, with which Mr Ahern is also associated. Earlier this year he presented a case study to the council on “risk taking” over the release of prisoners in the negotiations for the Belfast Agreement. At yesterday’s meeting he presented a report on a global curriculum for conflict resolution.
He described this as “a set of pointers which we believe would help individuals who have been involved in conflict resolution issues around the world”.
