David Miliband
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Member of Parliament for South Shields, United Kingdom

New York City, NY--2008
FAREED ZAKARIA
FAREED ZAKARIA: Ladies and gentlemen, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for coming.

I first met our guest this afternoon many years ago when he was introduced to me as the future prime minister of Britain. He was then 25 years old, I think. He was the head of the policy unit at Number 10 Downing Street for Tony Blair.

Between then and the time that that prediction will be fulfilled, he has been -- (laughter) -- he has been schools minister, environmental minister, and is currently hanging his hat as Her Majesty's secretary of state for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. David Miliband will probably be prime minister one day, so you can say you saw him at the council before he was David Miliband. (Laughter.)

Let me ask you, David, what are the things as foreign secretary that principally occupy you these days? I mean, you are probably dealing with Iran, but Iran is part of a broader challenge, you were telling me.

FOREIGN SECRETARY DAVID MILIBAND: Yeah, and -- well, thank you very much to everyone for coming. You want to sort of ski off-piece, really?

ZAKARIA: Yeah. Yeah.

MILIBAND: Right.

ZAKARIA: This is -- David wanted to give a speech, so this is his opportunity to -- (laughter) --

MILIBAND: No, no -- (inaudible) -- all these people have come for a discussion about counterproliferation, so you might want to take a vote at some point as to whether or not we want to talk about that.

ZAKARIA: This is -- this is guided democracy. (Laughter.)

MILIBAND: Right.