LONDON (AFP) — Foreign Secretary David Miliband insisted Tuesday that "deep concerns" about mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan should not stop Britain from championing democracy around the world, his office said.
In a speech honouring Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Miliband said he was "unapologetic" about promoting a "mission to help democracy spread through the world," according to the text of the address issued in advance.
"I believe discussion about the Iraq war has clouded the debate about promoting democracy around the world," Miliband said in the address to an audience at her old Oxford college, Saint Hugh's.
"I understand the doubts about Iraq and Afghanistan and the deep concerns at the mistakes made," he said.
"But my plea is that we do not let divisions over those conflicts obscure our national interest, never mind our moral impulse, in supporting movements for democracy."
China's economic success indicated "we can no longer take the forward march of democracy for granted" and people inside and outside the country were "rightly concerned about the next stage in political development," he added.
Miliband is to visit China later this month and said he would raise this point during his trip. Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited China last month but some campaigners say he should do more to press Beijing on human rights.
Britain "should be on the side of "the civilian surge" of the type which occurred on the streets of Yangon last year, prompting a brutal crackdown by the junta, Miliband said.
"I am unapologetic about a mission to help democracy spread through the world -- and by this I mean not just more elections, but the rule of law and economic freedoms which are the basis of liberal democracy," he said.
Miliband also called on the European Union to do more to promote democracy beyond its own back yard as well as forge a "more attractive" policy for dealing with prospective members, particularly in the Balkans.
Failure to do the latter could see it "lose its power as a magnet for democratic reform," he said.
Proposing practical measures to aid the spread of democracy across the world, Miliband urged checks and balances between executives, judiciaries and legislatures.
In that context, he spoke of his "regret" over Russian restrictions that led to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe cancelling observer missions to Russia's March 2 presidential election.
Miliband also said young democracies should build up local and national institutions and called on the Iraqi government to hold provincial elections to help integrate former insurgents.
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