Tony Blair suggested how to cope with geopolitical challenges at the Annual Youth Forum of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in Kyiv, Ukraine

On June 17 Tony Blair, former Prime Minister (1997-2007) of the United Kingdom, Founder and Patron of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, spoke at the Annual Youth Forum organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in Kyiv. In his remarks to the scholars of the foundation’s educational programs Mr. Blair suggested necessary things on how to cope with geopolitical changes and answered the questions of the young audience.

Addressing young Ukrainians and talking about changes in the country Mr. Blair said “that in the world that changes you have to change or you’ll be left behind. So there is of course in Ukraine a security problem but there is also a reform problem. You have the legacy of old systems that were inefficient, and wrong, and often corrupt. You have to reform and change those systems.”

Mr. Blair also stressed out that the reform process doesn’t just to apply to governance but it also applies to people. He said that “we all have to change our own mind-set. So the future of Ukraine will not just be decided by what governance do but by what people do, and what young people do particularly.”

He also said about importance of the alliances that should be created in the post-Second World War world to cope with the geopolitical changes and allowing countries not be frightened by it or threatened by it, operating within that change with dignity, with peace, and prosperity.

Mr. Blair also focused on the importance of unity of Europe in the changing world that would give European states ability to exercise power and influence to be able to decide a common future, being strong enough in doing it together.

He also supported a pro-European choice of Ukrainian people: “And this is the reason why I support Ukraine being part of Europe today. For us in Europe and here, I include this country, we have to have the intelligence, and the wisdom, and the vision, and the leadership to build a Europe that is united, strong so that as this world changes we are able to withstand not just aggression but also the fact of geopolitical power”.

And finally Tony Blair emphasized that the purpose of this power is not just a fight for interests but a fight for values which are freedom and democracy, saying that the government should be beneath the people and not on top of them. He added that freedom and democracy are “about the ability to create systems where if people work hard by their own merit they can do well; they are about the situation where your ability and not corruption decided how well you do in the society and in the country. And the key to all of that is in the education of our young people though these values and to what I call the open mind”.

The annual event gathered more than 300 students from all over Ukraine, including winners and alumni of the foundation’s educational programs: the nationwide scholarship program Zavtra.UA and the educational program WorldWideStudies. Tony Blair together with Victor Pinchuk, Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist awarded this year’s seven grant recipients of the WorldWideStudies program, who will go to study to the leading universities of Austria, Sweden, UK and USA with financial support of the foundation. They also awarded three best students selected out of hundred Zavtra.UA scholars in 2015.

Images from the event available following the link.

The video of Mr. Blair’s official remarks (18:43 min.): https://youtu.be/h8oZFFlpQ7o