Ukraine

Baroness Helic Excerpts

Friday 25th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Helic (Con)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord. I too welcome this debate and associate myself with the wise words of noble Lords, particularly those of the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Stirrup, and the noble Lord, Lord Spellar.

Europe is divided between countries that understand Russia—those that have experienced Soviet occupation and domination—and countries that have been fortunate enough not to have experienced Soviets on their soil. We are lucky that our allies today are countries like Poland and the Baltic states, whose leaders have experienced Soviet domination in living memory. They have been sounding the alarm about Russian intentions for years, and were often wrongly accused of being alarmist, or of even poisoning good relations with Moscow.

It is encouraging that the new candidate for EU High Representative is the former Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, who has been a consistently clear voice on what Putin’s Russia stands for and what must be done to help Ukraine as it fights to defend its own territory and peace in Europe. In her words:

“Russia’s imperialistic dream never died.”


Post-2022, it is difficult to argue against this.

Russia’s war on Ukraine presents a challenge to Western interests and to countries collectively and individually. How we respond to its illegal war of aggression speaks of our values and our strength. To fight back, we need strong defence, policies that shore up collective security in Europe where it is threatened by Russia, the support of the British people, and moral clarity. We must be able to counter Russia in Ukraine as well as beyond Ukraine, not only militarily but by pushing against its false narrative of self-defence, its spread of disinformation and its so-called successful battle for the hearts and minds of global public opinion, in which it is cynically portraying itself as a country in pursuit of peace while the West supposedly fuels war.

In this context, I will focus on three issues. First, we must be honest with the British people that Britain is at war and that investment in defence and the industries that support it, as well as in the FCDO, is a grave need, not a matter of luxury or choice. We must be clear: freedom, security and peace have a cost attached to them. Is the Minister confident that the defence budget will be set at 2.5% not in some distant future, but on 30 October?

Secondly, Russia crossed many red lines well before February 2022—in Moldova, Georgia and Crimea, and in Donbass in 2014. For decades it did so almost unchallenged. As our experience in Ukraine shows today, for us, this has been a costly mistake, and we seem to have learned little from it. In the Balkans, the most unstable part of Europe, the West is collectively acting as if none of these lessons have been learned. Russian infiltration and meddling have been normalised. Russia funds, trains and supports secessionists in Bosnia, Kosovo and North Macedonia, and fuels discord and disinformation, using the Russian Orthodox Church, with no consequences.

Serbia, Russia’s main proxy in the region, has been rapidly rearming, buying drones from Iran and cyber from China, and as of last week signing a co-operation agreement between its intelligence service and the FSB. Russian and Belarusian dissidents languish in Serbian prisons waiting for their extradition to Russia or Belarus.

The West’s response has been not one of appeasement but of actually helping the rearming effort. A couple of months ago, France sold 12 new Rafale fighter jets. Calls for the creation of a “Serbian world” to expand Serbia’s territory seem to have become normalised, just as the notion of a “Russian world” was.

Speaking about the Balkans two weeks ago, President Zelensky said:

“If Russia had managed to invade our country and threaten all of Eastern Europe, there is no doubt that the next region that Moscow would use to destabilize Europe would be the Baltics or the Balkans”.


If this does not ring alarm bells and inspire us to take more robust action, it shows that we have learned nothing from the tragedy in Ukraine. With this in mind, what plans are there for a full review of the West’s chaotic and failing strategy in the western Balkans, particularly following our defence agreement with Germany and closer co-operation with the European Union?

Finally, to overcome the Russian challenge, we need more than military might and determination, however admirable that is. We must have moral clarity and strength on our side, not only in Ukraine but beyond. Sadly, this is not the case. The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, said:

“Since we all agree that Russian occupation of Ukraine is very bad, how come Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza seems to be tolerable?”


This loses us support among the countries that should be on Ukraine’s side. Just look at yesterday’s BRICS meeting and the noble Baroness’s comments about India: Putin the aggressor was embraced, not isolated. This alienates us not only from future allies and friends but from our own people here in Britain. We need the British people to support what we are trying to do in Ukraine, and they have to believe we are on the right side elsewhere as well.

Ukraine is fighting for its own survival. It is also, by extension, fighting for peace and security in Europe and beyond. If borders can be changed in Ukraine, a message will go out that they can change elsewhere too. We must do everything in our power so that this does not happen, whether in Europe or anywhere else in the world.

Relations with Europe

Baroness Helic Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Helic (Con)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, and to welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Hodge. As a fellow immigrant, I share in this belief and humility each time I enter the Chamber. So, with less experience than the noble Baroness, I feel exactly how she does.

I welcome this debate and thank the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, for introducing it. I fully support closer educational and cultural ties with the European Union. I encourage the Government to seek bilateral solutions to the post-Brexit problems facing the young in particular, as well as up-and-coming musicians, artists and performers based in the United Kingdom and the European Union.

I am conscious of the time limit today, so I will use my time to focus on security and conflict prevention. The Prime Minister’s commitment to closer co-operation with our EU allies, the Foreign Secretary’s prioritisation of Europe, and the Defence Secretary’s proposed security pact all create new opportunities for promoting peace and security in Europe. This is common sense.

We now know that Russia has emerged as one of the greatest threats to our security and prosperity, with its efforts, as was recently explained, to cause

“sustained mayhem on British and European streets”.

Yet the United Kingdom’s co-operation with the EU is today weaker than that of any other non-EU NATO country, such as Canada, the United States or Norway. Russian operations are interconnected and intentional, including in the western Balkans, where the Kremlin has exploited our perceived weaknesses, particularly our relative lack of attention to the region in recent years, as well as local tensions, energy dependence and endemic corruption.

As in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, Russia seeks to stoke unrest and reverse the progress made on the EU and NATO paths. It is using the same playbook, such as hybrid threats, disinformation campaigns, intelligence operations and energy blackmail via its proxies. Genuine engagement with the EU on defence presents an opportunity to help course-correct and counter these threats. In practical terms, since the withdrawal agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union did not specify any provisions on the common foreign and security policy, the UK ended its contribution to Operation Althea in Bosnia and British personnel left the mission. Current force levels are not adequate to deter secessionists or external meddling, and I urge the Government to look again at the policy they inherited. What consideration has been given to the United Kingdom rejoining Operation Althea and pushing the EU to increase resources and manpower for the mission?

Secondly, the Security Council meets each year in November to extend the authorisation of the mandate of Operation Althea, as set out in Resolution 2183. Each year, the mandate is weakened and compromises are made under Russia’s pressure. The possibility of a Russian veto cannot be excluded, and further compromises are not tenable. Can the Minister tell the House what consideration has been given to engaging EU and NATO Governments at the ministerial level to agree on a plan of action to maintain an executive military presence as long as is necessary, as per Annexe 1A, in the event of a Russian veto? Citizens of Bosnia need reassurance that the terms of the Dayton peace agreements will be enforced with the existing executive instruments unless and until the Dayton framework is replaced by popular consent.

We need security and peace in the region. As Ukraine has shown, European peace and security can no longer be taken for granted, and investing in deterrence and long-term stability is far cheaper than dealing with the consequences of conflict.

Strategic Defence Review

Baroness Helic Excerpts

Wednesday 9th October 2024 Grand Committee

[Baroness Helic (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome this debate and congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Robertson, on leading the SDR and its excellent team of experts and practitioners. I declare my interests as set out in the register.

I will dare to repeat a few assumptions that have been made because they are important in the context of what I will try to contribute to this debate. There are more simultaneous conflicts today than in any period since the Second World War. We see autocracies acting in a more power-hungry and aggressive way than at any time in recent history. We are witnessing widespread disregard for human rights and international law that, far from coincidentally, overlaps with a rise in mass killings, atrocities and disasters. We are seeing the accelerating development and deployment of new technology on the battlefield, including the reported use of autonomous weapons systems in the conflict in Gaza, in ways that are contributing to the perception of the unravelling of decades of norms and conventions regarding the protection of civilians. In this environment, a focus on new technology and armaments is necessary, but at the same time, we must not lose sight of certain essential principles that remain unchanged.

I welcome the Government’s stated “total commitment” to the UK’s nuclear deterrent and their reaffirming that NATO remains the cornerstone of our defence. I also welcome the Prime Minister’s “serious commitment” to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence. I hope this remains the case, since the Defence Secretary recently said in an interview that the Government will make “tough choices”, including on defence. I hope the noble Lord does not feel that the freedom to make necessary recommendations will be curtailed by this uncertainty.

The SDR has many questions to address to ensure that Britain is secure at home and strong abroad, and I know that the noble Lord will be inundated with advice. I will focus my remarks on three areas which may not necessarily make it into the briefing folder, given the 14,500 submissions. First, in our unstable and highly contested global environment, it is essential that we uphold human rights standards and push against those who challenge the international order and disregard international law. The Government’s manifesto states clearly that international law is essential

“because of the security it brings”.

Yesterday, I was encouraged to hear four government Ministers and three officials say in no uncertain terms, “We are committed to international law”. While that is welcome, there is a perception that the United Kingdom practises this selectively and condemns human rights violations committed by adversaries but not those carried out by our friends. We need to answer the question of what we stand for. Such double standards will not bring us security; they will undermine it. An SDR built on such inconsistent foundations will struggle to deliver the strengthened defences that the UK needs and I know the noble Lord wishes to see.

Secondly, it is vastly preferable to deter wars than to have to fight them or rebuild after them. With that in mind, while our military power must be backed by a strong and capable Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, or vice versa, the FCDO is our lead department in engaging with the world. It must be properly funded and supported, as war begins where diplomacy fails. A robust and capable diplomatic presence is not a luxury but a necessity. The former Foreign Secretary, the noble Lord, Lord Hague, made strengthening the Foreign Office as an institution a central priority during his tenure. I hope that the new SDR recommendations will build on this example and be prepared to go further still, since the threats to our security today are much tougher than at that time.

Closely related to this, I was dismayed to learn yesterday that, after the BBC World Service ceased to broadcast in Lebanon, the radio frequency was immediately replaced by a Russian state propaganda station. In a world where we rely on soft power to achieve and support our goals, we should be expanding the reach of the BBC World Service, not watching it wither and be replaced, as in the case of Lebanon, by Russian state propaganda.

Finally, we must back our statements of commitment to human rights with action. I urge the noble Lord not to overlook the persistence of sexual and gender-based violence as a feature of nearly all contemporary conflicts and its role as a tactic of warfare and cause of human displacement and suffering. I hope that the SDR will include recommendations on how to strengthen UK and international action to counter the use of rape as a weapon of war, including incorporating that action into all our relevant military training, particularly when we are training up allied armed forces. As is often pointed out, the United Kingdom Armed Forces are second to none and the power of this example cannot be overstated.

The SDR comes at a time when the challenges we face are immense, but not insurmountable. As well as ensuring that our Armed Forces have the tools that they need to do their work, we must uphold human rights and international law, oppose violations wherever they occur, avoid damaging double standards and invest in diplomacy and soft power. I believe that the noble Lord attaches importance to these principles, and I look forward to the 2025 review.

King’s Speech

Baroness Helic Excerpts

Thursday 25th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Helic (Con)]

My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Baroness and the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, on their appointments. I also want to record my thanks to my noble friends Lord Cameron and Lord Ahmad.

I welcome His Majesty’s Government ambitious vision for our country, in particular improving our relationship with our European partners. Peace in Europe is broken. In Ukraine, war is raging and people are dying. People are at risk in the western Balkans, where the Kremlin has successfully recruited proxies to subvert progress and the achievements of the last 30 years.

Much is at stake. If Ukraine’s territorial integrity is at risk, no country in Europe can feel safe. Our continued support for Ukraine is crucial, and the Government’s clarity on this is welcome. However, I am concerned that Russia’s malign actions and hybrid operations elsewhere in Europe are being ignored. In the words of Foreign Secretary Bevin, the Balkan region is the “powder keg of Europe”, yet the West’s response to the Kremlin’s meddling is muted and inconsistent, bordering on appeasement.

The Defence Secretary stated this week that European security will be this Government’s first foreign and defence policy. This is welcome. I would argue that, if we seriously want to reset relations with Europe, we must engage in the European neighbourhood and shore up the areas of greatest threat to our common security—Foreign Secretary Bevin’s powder keg. That points inevitably to bringing our policy towards the western Balkans in line with our wider strategy towards Russia, to prevent secessionism and forced border changes. In the spirit of upholding this European security, will the Government commit to reinforcing the military deterrent in Bosnia and Herzegovina by rejoining Operation Althea and increasing our support for NATO HQ in Sarajevo? Both are in our gift and in our interest.

My second point of inconsistency in our policy concerns Israel and Gaza. Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel was cowardly. Taking hostages, perpetrating violence against women and killing civilians are unacceptable. So too is anti-Semitism. It is never to be tolerated. At the same time, we must value people’s lives equally. No child in Gaza is less of a child or less of a human than a child in Tel Aviv. No family, no home, no school, no hospital, no water supply, no religious building is a legitimate target anywhere—in Israel, Ukraine or Gaza. We are complacent, and we are in danger of being complicit if we do not treat them equally, let dehumanization become normalized and international humanitarian law be disregarded.

I welcome the Government’s decision to reinstate the funding to UNRWA, but we surely have to go further. How is it that a bombing of a school in Ukraine deserves full condemnation from the Prime Minister, yet attacks on Gaza schools, where refugees seek respite and protection, do not? There are no consequences either. According to UNICEF, 10 amputations are carried out on children in Gaza each day. In some cases, it is the last resort. We have rightly welcomed with open arms sick children from Ukraine, yet not a single visa has been granted to a wounded child from Gaza—not even one. For nine months, I have pleaded unsuccessfully with my colleagues in the previous Government to do the humane thing. Can the new Government put this right? How is it that we can secure the supply of arms to Kyiv but we cannot secure a reliable and desperately needed supply of food and water to the starved and sick in Gaza?

I hope that the newly initiated Foreign Office review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law will come soon enough for people who, as the Foreign Secretary has said,

“are trapped in hell on earth”.—[Official Report, Commons, 19/7/24; cols. 301-2.]

—which of course includes the hostages—and that it will not be a post-mortem but a new direction.

Finally, I too welcome the appointment of the noble Lord, Lord Robertson, to lead the strategic defence review. I am a great fan of his and of Dr Hill and General Barrons; their experience is unrivalled. They need none of my input, but if I may, I urge the noble Lord and his impressive team that the goal must not only be the strengthening of our Armed Forces but also of the foundations of our country’s ability to uphold an open and resilient international order, in which protecting human rights is not just a convenient phrase but a consistent basis for promoting humanity and protecting our national interest.