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The international reactions to the Arab Spring have been disparate, including calls for expanded liberties and civil rights in many authoritarian countries of the Middle East and North Africa in late 2010 and 2011. ==General statements== * — Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd wrote an op-ed for ''The Australian'' published 20 May 2011 entitled "Keep the faith with the Arab spring." Rudd compared the struggle of Arabs demonstrating for political reforms and democratisation to the sputtering pro-democracy movements within Australia's geographic proximity in Fiji, Indonesia and Myanmar, as well as more successful democratisation efforts in India, South Africa, and Turkey. He also indicated Australian support for the protesters, writing, "The Arab democratic revolutions have made it clear that democracy is not something called for by the West. The call for democracy came resoundingly from within and to the complete surprise of the outside world. Now the international community has a responsibility to stand in support of Arab citizens in their call for democracy, human rights and the rule of law... That is why countries like Australia take a long-term approach to supporting democracy." * — At a seminar on 16 June 2011 held by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, Permanent Secretary of Defence, Justice and Security Segakweng Tsiane, representing the Batswana government, called the Arab Spring a "wakeup call." She said the popular uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, and other countries indicated that those governments did not do enough to accommodate the desires of their citizenry. Tsiane expressed dissatisfaction with the way the Arab Spring has manifested, however, saying that inclusive national dialogue would be preferable to uprisings. * — Canadian daily ''The Globe and Mail'' has suggested that "Canada's cautious approach toward the Arab Spring democracy movements is in contrast to many other G8 nations." Despite his stiff criticism of crackdowns by the Libyan, Syrian, and Yemeni governments, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on 26 May that his government believed international aid to post-revolutionary countries should be provided by regional financial institutions such as the African Development Bank. Canada, he said, would not offer more direct financial assistance to countries revolutionised by the Arab Spring. * — In an extended question-and-answer session posted on the Eritrean Ministry of Information website in late May and early June, President Isaias Afewerki said the events in the Arab world should be viewed as separate but inter-related, with corruption, socioeconomic stratification, and dependence on foreign governments being a factor common to many of the countries that experienced unrest. He blamed the United States for a Middle Eastern policy he said created "chaos...in a creative way to further their aims and interests". He criticised "external intervention" in the affairs of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and other countries affected by the uprisings and said, "The fact remains that every people must solve their own problems according to their own convictions and without any external interference." Afewerki suggested that at least some of the protests were sparked and fueled by the West, saying, "These developments have served to teach a lesson to everyone about the wayward western policies in the last 20 years." He accused the West of attempting to create a New World Order by manipulating organisations like the African Union and the Arab League into interfering with countries to Western countries' advantage. * — Foreign Minister Alain Juppé spoke at the Arab World Institute for a symposium on the Arab Spring in Paris on 16 April. He took a tone of humility, acknowledging that the revolutionary wave came as a "surprise" to France and admitting, "For too long we thought that the authoritarian regimes were the only bastions against extremism in the Arab world. Too long, we have brandished the Islamist threat as a pretext for justifying to an extent turning a blind eye on governments which were flouting freedom and curbing their country’s development." Juppé compared the Arab Spring favourably to the Islamic Golden Age and said, "We mustn't be afraid of this 'Arab Spring'." He said that while France does not have a policy of supporting "regime change", it intends to speak up for human rights in the Arab world and back transitions to democracy in North Africa, a region with which France has historically had close ties. He expressed confidence in protesters and concluded the speech by saying he was hopeful about the outcome of the Arab Spring. President Nicolas Sarkozy urged G8 countries to agree on a financial aid package to post-revolutionary Egypt and Tunisia on 26 May in response to requests by the transitional authorities in Egypt and Tunisia for money. Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., on 6 June, Juppé reiterated many of the main points of his 16 April address, saying, "Above all, we must not be afraid of the Arab Spring because it embodies universal values: dignity, freedom, respect for human rights, the right of people to choose their own leaders." He took a shot at American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington's controversial book ''The Clash of Civilizations'', which influenced Western thinking regarding Islam and the Islamic world in the post–Cold War era, claiming that "allowing the flame of hope kindled by the Arab Spring to go out would be vindicating the defenders of the clash of civilisations." Juppé also made reference to Sarkozy's support for financial aid to Egypt and Tunisia, as well as its participation in international military efforts to end the civil war in Libya. * — On 14 April, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman claimed that only economic stability would lead to political stability in the Arab world. He called the Arab Spring "an opportunity for the Arab world to move to democracy and prosperity" but emphasised that his government considers "the security of Israel," with a history of political and ethnic tensions within the Muslim-majority Middle East, to be paramount. * — Prime Minister Karim Masimov told ''Reuters'' on 2 April that his government is paying close attention to the protests and revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa. Masimov suggested that a lack of educational opportunities and social mobility, which he claimed were not major problems in Kazakhstan compared to in Egypt and Tunisia, had contributed to the revolutionary fervor gripping the Arab world. "What is the biggest difference between them and us?" Masimov asked rhetorically. "People in Kazakhstan, the young generation in Kazakhstan, have hope and they have an opportunity to go forward." He admitted that the Arab Spring highlighted political reforms needed in Astana and said Kazakhstan would transition peacefully toward democracy without experiencing the turmoil that the Arab world was going through. * — On 8 June, President Roza Otunbayeva addressed the World Economic Forum in Vienna, Austria, and spoke briefly about the Arab Spring. Otunbayeva, who came to power as Kyrgyzstan's interim leader after the 2010 Kyrgyzstani revolution and presided during an parliamentary election that gave a counter-revolutionary party a plurality, said: "After what happened in North Africa and the Middle East, slowly European countries started recogniding that it's unacceptable, outrageous, that those dictators shoot their people," and urged other Central Asian countries to follow Kyrgyzstan's example or risk experiencing a revolution like those in Tunisia and Egypt. * — In a speech on Islam and moderation in Oxford, England, on 17 May, Prime Minister Najib Razak touched on the events of the Arab Spring, noting the "overwhelming" pace and scale of the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. He added, "But amidst the chaos and the confusion we should not lose sight of the fact that these countries and peoples now face a fateful choice: the choice between extremism and intolerance ... and a peaceful, democratic moderation that will grant them more freedom of expression, not less." In stating Malaysia's support for the Palestinian nationalist movement, he pointedly added, "In supporting the Palestinian and other righteous causes, Malaysia will not support violence against non-combatants, civilians, women, children, the aged and infirm." Najib suggested moderates could prevail in the Arab Spring and break the cycle of violence and oppression in the region, comparing the situation to the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, the Indian independence movement, and civil rights struggles in South Africa and the United States. * — On 2 August, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully expressed his government's optimism for a positive outcome to the Arab Spring, in his opinion; while also ultimately cautioning that "this transition process will not be straightforward () we cannot take the changes for granted." McCully remarked on the unexpected nature of the uprisings and said: "What we do know is that we are now dealing with a series of very different leadership models and high expectations for a better future. While elites remain unchanged in many countries, Arab leaders will have to become more responsive to their people." He also said New Zealand was engaging with Arab governments and had offered its diplomatic and economic support to transitional authorities in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. * — President Dmitri Medvedev voiced consternation over the Arab Spring on 14 June, telling his Uzbekistani counterpart President Islam Karimov that he hoped it would bring about an outcome "that is clear and predictable for us." He said the revolutionary wave could destabilise Russia and its neighbours. On 14 July, he compared the Arab Spring to the fall of the Berlin Wall and said it proved that "socioeconomic reforms, reforms that would take into account the interests of the widest majority of the population, must be carried out in due time". * — At a summit in Istanbul in mid-March, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the revolts in the region signified a popular "demand for change." He warned that Arab governments would be well suited to be responsive to their people's demands and refrain from using violence or coercion. Erdoğan stressed that Turkey will not intervene in the affairs of other countries, but it "will continue to offer sincere and constructive criticism." * — Prime Minister David Cameron expressed both enthusiasm and caution about the Arab Spring at the G8 meeting in late May 2011, offering financial assistance to post-revolutionary Egypt and Tunisia and saying, "I want a very simple and clear message to come out of this summit, and that is that the most powerful nations on earth have come together and are saying to those in the Middle East and North Africa who want greater democracy, greater freedom, greater civil rights, we are on your side." He warned that if Western governments did not provide aid, prolonged chaos in the region could breed Islamic extremism and accelerate the pace of immigration by North Africans to European countries, something Foreign Secretary William Hague said the UK believed to be unacceptable earlier in the month; however, with a note of caution; to be caught-amongst those supporting; & fighting against, greater involvement, with ''arab spring politics'', in the larger towns; & cities of the UK--is not a moorish pleasure to be sipped; & savoured; its pretty heated debate. * *Just a day after Cameron's remarks, ''The Observer'' reported that British officers were training snipers and elite security forces in Saudi Arabia that had been deployed to squelch protesters calling for reforms in Saudi Arabia as well as neighboring Bahrain. On 17 June, Hague described the Arab Spring as a more transformational event than the September 11 attacks of 2001 and claimed that "the real nature of the Arab world is expressed in Tahrir Square, not at Ground Zero". * — On 19 May, President Barack Obama gave a foreign policy speech to an invited audience and members of the press at the State Department in regards to the Arab Spring. He contrasted the ideology of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, recently killed by US Navy SEALS, with that of pro-democracy protesters in the Middle East and North Africa, saying: "By the time we found bin Laden, al Qaeda’s agenda had come to be seen by the vast majority of the region as a dead end, and the people of the Middle East and North Africa had taken their future into their own hands." Obama praised the demonstrators, comparing their efforts to bring about reform to the actions of the Boston Tea Party and Rosa Parks in American history. He criticized socioeconomic stratification in the Middle East, saying, "The nations of the Middle East and North Africa won their independence long ago, but in too many places their people did not. In too many countries, power has been concentrated in the hands of the few." He added that "through the moral force of non-violence, the people of the region have achieved more change in six months than terrorists have accomplished in decades. Obama also pledged to continue U.S. security policy in the region, but said he would also emphasize the opposition of the United States to violent and repressive governmental responses to the Arab Spring and its support for human rights and democratic reforms, claiming, "Our support for these principles is not a secondary interest... () will be the policy of the United States to promote reform across the region, and to support transitions to democracy." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「International reactions to the Arab Spring」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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