Eastern Mediterranean: Turkey, Cyprus and Syria
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The Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Warsi) (Con)
My Lords, debates like today’s remind me of the incredible expertise and quality of debate that are such a feature of this House. I am almost inclined to succumb to the temptation to respond without reference to any of my brief, but that may be too much for my officials.
My noble friend Lord Sharkey’s opening analysis outlined the incredibly complicated world that we face and the challenges of a modern Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It raised the question of what is in Britain’s interests and how we pursue those interests. What are our responsibilities in pursuing those interests and how, in light of what is happening in Iraq, do we ensure that we learn the lessons of the past? I heard various theories about that as I listened to noble Lords. I do not think that everything can be distilled down to a simplistic view that it can all be blamed on Western action or Western inaction. We see that we have to use our diplomacy to respond to a changing world. We have seen in Iraq over the past few weeks how quickly the situation on the ground has changed.
It was interesting to hear my noble friend Lord Howell describe the UK’s strategic interest and to work out ways in which we can salvage and further that strategic interest. One of the challenges for the Foreign Office is ensuring that we look at what we lose when we gain something. It is important to make sure that our strategic interests in that way are balanced. For example, we see clearly that it was right, despite some concerns, for the United Kingdom to raise its relationship with Iran, with which we have common interests. The announcement today of the opening of an embassy in Tehran after first appointing a chargé in November last year clearly shows that it is important for us to continue to reach out and engage.
Turkey—which was mentioned in what was a wide-ranging debate—was raised by several noble Lords: my noble friends Lady Hussein-Ece and Lord Sharkey and the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan. The UK consistently has been one of the strongest supporters of Turkey’s EU accession process. We believe that that process will benefit the UK, the EU and Turkey and will contribute to a shared prosperity and regional security.
We firmly believe that the EU accession process is the most effective way to deal with some of the issues that need reform in Turkey, as was said by my noble friend Lady Hussein-Ece and the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan. Some European partners question the logic of helping Turkey to make progress on opening accession chapters that are relevant, for example, to human rights, in light of recent events. However, my noble friend Lord Sharkey was right to say that that can become a humiliating process. We must not let that process effectively to allow Turkey to ask whether it is in its interest to continue to pursue it. We must make sure that we keep Turkey engaged, because, among other things, it has a vital role to play in building that very regional stability that noble Lords have been speaking about. We therefore encourage Turkey to align its foreign policy with the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy. Turkey has demonstrated its commitment to EU foreign policy goals through its diplomacy and peacebuilding work, for example in the Balkans and in Somalia; and the UK worked closely with Turkey on both.
More recently, we have encouraged Turkey to align itself with the EU approach on Ukraine. Of course, Turkey continues to play a vital role in the international response to the situation in Syria.
The Foreign Secretary and his Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Davutoglu, have regular discussions about Turkey, not least about how to check the flow of foreign fighters transiting Turkey to join the conflict in Syria. The importance of that relationship was raised by the noble Lord, Lord Anderson; we continue to work with Turkey as a key strategic partner. It was of course part of the London 11 meeting last Friday to which the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, referred, and we are still working together to look at ways in which we can provide stronger and more cohesive support to the national coalition. The noble Baroness will be aware that Turkey hosts the Syrian national coalition.
The UK has been at the forefront of the international humanitarian response to Syria. Our total funding is now in the region of £600 million. In parallel, we continue to work with Turkey and other members of the London 11 to provide the political and economic support which the Syrian national coalition needs. Turkey is of course also providing refuge for hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled the violence in Syria, most of whom now reside outside the designated camps. We cannot thank Turkey enough for its generosity, because it includes allowing international NGOs to use its border crossings to deliver aid into Syria as well as hosting the refugees. It is important that, in the end, we find a political solution to ensure that, someday, those refugees are allowed to return home, but we also need to work through the United Nations. A further Security Council resolution could step up efforts to deliver humanitarian aid across the border and across lines irrespective of the consent of the regime.
My noble friend Lord Sharkey referred to recent developments in Iraq, as did other noble Lords. I covered this in a Statement yesterday and, indeed, in a Question earlier today. The horrific pictures emerging of the atrocities that are being committed by ISIL are of course deeply concerning, and it is important for us to go back to what several noble Lords said: regional stability is ultimately what will fight extremism. We have been highlighting the importance of having a newly elected Government in Iraq, a Government who are inclusive and do not make communities feel that they are not part of the decision-making process, and who do not create the space for extremist groups to exploit. It is important that in both Syria and Iraq we continue to work with those forces that are there stamping out that extremism.
My noble friend Lord Howell referred to the potential that the eastern Mediterranean region can provide as an alternative source of energy. In the light of the situation in Ukraine, the importance of diversifying energy supplies to the EU is another priority, but it is difficult to see how we could realise the full potential of energy from the eastern Mediterranean without a Cyprus settlement—again mentioned by several noble Lords. The Government are determined to support the leaders of both communities to realise this important window of opportunity for a comprehensive settlement. My noble friend Lady Hussein-Ece said that she is an optimist on this, but I think that a real opportunity is being presented.
That settlement would make a substantial contribution to the security and prosperity of the region. A Cyprus settlement is also crucial to the prosperity of the two communities on the island. For those reasons, the UK will play its full part in supporting the prospects for a settlement through our active diplomacy, support to the UN good offices mission and close co-operation with our partners in Ankara, Athens and the EU. Several noble Lords mentioned the joint declaration signed in February. There is a Cypriot leaders’ meeting in Cyprus next week, which needs to agree the ambitious vision set out in the declaration for achieving progress in the settlement talks over the summer, with the aim of capturing an agreement on the core issues of the settlement in a UN Security Council product in the autumn.
I was asked about UK action to support the Cyprus settlement. Last week, the Minister for Europe gave strong political support to the two negotiators when he met them. We are providing diplomatic support to the UN good offices mission. We are also keen to see a new UN special adviser to the settlement process to expedite a final settlement. We are working closely with the UN on the acceleration of that appointment. Again, I go back to the fact that I do not think there has been a better time in several years for a lasting settlement and therefore we commend the two leaders at this point for their determination. The noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, also asked about recent events in Iraq, which I think I dealt with earlier.
It is incredibly difficult to conclude such a wide-ranging debate. Of course, Iran and Iraq were mentioned, as were Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and Turkey. To try to deal with the situations in each of those countries in any depth while outlining the extent of the FCO and DfID engagement would be almost impossible. However, I am sure that those issues will come up in the form of subjects for Questions and debates in the coming months in this House.
I end on an issue which I have made a huge priority: that of faith and foreign policy. I have said that it would have increasing significance in terms of foreign policy, which is why I have been at the forefront of making sure that our Foreign Office is religiously literate. Only today, I hosted what I think was the 13th or 14th lecture from external and internal speakers on the issue of faith and foreign policy, when we had the pleasure of hosting Dr Rowan Williams—the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Williams of Oystermouth. Those lectures give staff the opportunity to raise some of these issues and open their thinking.
However, we are also encouraging the officers to look at what levers faith presents. We often discuss what challenges faith presents but we should look also at what levers it presents and how we truly make sure that we take forward the human rights priority—my personal priority of freedom of religion and belief—because ultimately, if we have states and individual communities abiding by freedom of religion and belief, much of the conflict that we are seeing, both inter-religion and intra-religion, could start to be resolved. Having a deep and better understanding by being better historians and having a sophisticated understanding of faith issues will, I hope, make sure that as a Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as a Government, we face a rapidly changing world in a better way: one where Britain is engaged and informed.