Alexander
Downer Passed Papadopoulos Info
From Bar, Denied Conflict of
Interest to Press in 2013
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
December 30 – At the end of
the year in which the UN's
Cyprus talks failed, the UN's
penultimate Special Adviser on
Cyprus Alexander Downer is
suddenly in the news.
The New York
Times reports, George
Papadopoulos, a young foreign
policy adviser to the Trump
campaign, made a startling
revelation to Australia’s top
diplomat in Britain: Russia
had political dirt on Hillary
Clinton...Exactly how much Mr.
Papadopoulos said that night
at the Kensington Wine Rooms
with the Australian, Alexander
Downer, is unclear. But...
Australian officials passed
the information about Mr.
Papadopoulos to their American
counterparts.”
On CNN this gave
rise to the question, Who is
the man? They meant
Papadopoulos, as it turned
out, and didn't follow up on
the UN link. But Inner City
Press covered and questioned
Downer at the UN on conflicts
of interest (a stake in the
consultancy Bespoke Approach)
and if he would in fact become
an ambassador, which he
dismissed or “flicked away” in
2013.
From the
transcript, question: “If and
when the talks resume in
October, will you be around,
because of certain
information-Downer: “I really
enjoy the job and I haven’t
any intention to give it up. I
have seen speculation, which
is some speculation, let’s
confront it, as you all want
to ask, speculation that I
might be the ambassador in
Washington. I am not sure I
ever want to be an ambassador.
I was the Foreign Minister for
a long time, and to be an
ambassador you have to live
permanently out of your own
country. That’s not so much
something I’ve been
particularly enthusiastic
about. No one who is in a
position to appoint me as
ambassador to Washington has
ever raised this with me ever.
It is just a speculative piece
in one newspaper. And I
congratulate people here on
picking up something in one
newspaper. It’s Google alert,
I suppose. It was just a
speculative piece written by a
journalist that if the
Liberals won the next
elections in Australia, the
Liberal Party won the next
elections in Australia that I
would be the logical person to
make the Ambassador in
Washington. I am not sure
about that and I am not sure
whether I would want to do it.
Nobody has ever mentioned it
to me who would be in a
position to decide. So, I can
just flick that one straight
away.”
But the question
was not whether Downer could
be Ambassador to the US and a
UN envoy at the same time --
though with the way things are
going, who knows? Rather, the
question is whether being in
the running to head a
political party is in conflict
with being a UN official,
under the UN Charter.
Here's what Inner
City Press asked on July 16,
2013, after publishing this on
July 15: Inner City Press:
Downer is the good offices
envoy on Cyprus, but he’s
announced, and I haven’t seen
it retracted, that he is going
to be running to be the
President of the South
Australian Liberal Party. This
came up for a moment,
regarding Mr. Prodi, but I
wonder, what are the rules
applicable to running,
particularly if he were to
win, the presidency of a
political party in a country,
and at the same time being
admittedly a part-time when
actually employed UN envoy UN
Spokesperson: Well, I mean, I
think the caveats that you
have provided in your own
question partly answer it.
And, if I have anything
further from the Department of
Political Affairs, I will let
you know. But, I don’t have
anything further on that at
the moment. Inner City Press:
It seems like if it’s a
conflict if he wins, this may
be a conflict running, because
he’d have the same…
Spokesperson: …the principle
is well taken in the question
that you are posing, and I
will see if my colleagues have
anything.”
The UN, as
remains the case under Antonio
Guterres at year's end 2017,
never returned with any
information. But we'll have
more on this.
***
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