Blair on record-breaking flight
Press Association
Saturday March 25, 2006 9:38 AM
Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie flew into Melbourne after a record breaking flight across the world.
Their chartered British Airways 777 jet registered the longest non-stop passenger flight by any aircraft, taking 18 hours and 55 minutes to make the 9,200 nautical mile journey from Brussels to Australia.
Mr Blair touched down on the first leg of a seven day diplomatic odyssey which will also take in New Zealand and Indonesia.
The Blairs went straight to the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch the Commonwealth Games athletics finals, and will meet British athletes and witness the event’s spectacular closing ceremony on Sunday.
But his trip will also see him make a major foreign policy speech to the Australian parliament on Monday, and address a climate change conference in Auckland, as the first British Prime Minister to visit New Zealand since the 1950s.
The Prime Minister’s visit to the Indonesian capital Jakarta takes him to the heart of the most populous Muslim country in the world - and a democracy defiant of Islamic extremism.
Mr Blair earlier this week spelt out his vision of an “activist” or interventionist foreign policy, and his official spokesman described the Prime Minister’s marathon mission as the “illustrated guide” to it, demonstrating global interdependence.
The spokesman said: “This illustrates the interdependency of foreign policy, whether it’s terrorism in Asia or a natural disaster like the Tsunami, or economics link or co-operation on an issue such as Iraq or climate change this is an illustrated guide to our common interests.”
In his Canberra speech, Mr Blair will stress the importance of global alliances.
First, however, Mr and Mrs Blair were set to enjoy the closing stages of the Commonwealth Games, having flown out in extra first class luxury thanks to chartering the same aircraft used by the Queen for her recent visit to Melbourne. Downing Street stressed that using the same plane and retaining its seat configuration was the most cost effective way of making the trip.
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