Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what (a) steps his Department has taken, (b) guidance his Department has issued and (c) discussions his Department has had in the last 12 months on the rules and regulations surrounding the award of honours by British overseas territories.
Answered by Alan Duncan
Nominations for citizens of the British Overseas Territories (BOTs) are submitted to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Royal, Ceremonial and Honours Unit for consideration on the Diplomatic Service and Overseas Honours List. The rules and regulations are the same for nominations from the Overseas Territories as they are for all other honours nominations and there has been no new guidance or discussions about honours for the Overseas Territories in the last year.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received on the substance of allegations made by the Government of Morocco that Iran has provided arms and assistance to the Polisario Front through Hezbollah.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK has consistently raised with Iran longstanding concerns about destabilising activity by Iran and its proxies in other countries. I refer to the Foreign Secretary's similar comment in the House on 9 May after his statement on the Iran nuclear deal, when Rehman Chisti asked about Morocco's diplomatic relations with Iran.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the Government's policy is on protecting Oman's security, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK has a broad and long-standing relationship with Oman, including a strong historic and current security and defence relationship. We are deeply committed to helping Oman protect its security, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and this is reflected through our significant defence cooperation. We have a well-established and significant loan service working within all three Omani services; we are in the process of establishing a permanent British Army presence in the region; and we are heavily investing in the port of Duqm for use as a Joint Logistics Hub and by the Royal Navy. Next year, Exercise Saif Sareea 3 will take place in Oman – the largest UK-Omani exercise for 15 years.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterparts in Latin America on the political and economic situation in Venezuela.
Answered by Alan Duncan
We share the concerns of the international community about the deteriorating political and economic situation in Venezuela. Economic mismanagement is producing inflation and shortages of basic goods, with a significant impact upon ordinary Venezuelans. Venezuela became an FCO Human Rights Priority Country in 2016. President Maduro has requested United Nations assistance to boost medical supplies.
The Organisation of American States (OAS) has called for the OAS Democratic Charter to be invoked unless the Venezuelan Government calls elections and releases political prisoners. The UNASUR- supported dialogue between the Government and opposition has stalled.
I met the previous Venezuelan Minister for Europe, Samuel Moncada at the EU-CELAC Foreign Minister's meeting on 26 October and discussed humanitarian issues and the economic situation. At that meeting I also raised the deteriorating situation in Venezuela with several of my Latin American and European counterparts. On 20 March I met a delegation of Venezuelan MPs from the National Assembly to discuss the situation and to highlight our support for an independent and empowered Parliament. The EU Foreign Affairs Committee last discussed Venezuela on 18 July, which was attended by the Foreign Secretary.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on the political and economic situation in Venezuela.
Answered by Alan Duncan
We share the concerns of the international community about the deteriorating political and economic situation in Venezuela. Economic mismanagement is producing inflation and shortages of basic goods, with a significant impact upon ordinary Venezuelans. Venezuela became an FCO Human Rights Priority Country in 2016. President Maduro has requested United Nations assistance to boost medical supplies.
The Organisation of American States (OAS) has called for the OAS Democratic Charter to be invoked unless the Venezuelan Government calls elections and releases political prisoners. The UNASUR- supported dialogue between the Government and opposition has stalled.
I met the previous Venezuelan Minister for Europe, Samuel Moncada at the EU-CELAC Foreign Minister's meeting on 26 October and discussed humanitarian issues and the economic situation. At that meeting I also raised the deteriorating situation in Venezuela with several of my Latin American and European counterparts. On 20 March I met a delegation of Venezuelan MPs from the National Assembly to discuss the situation and to highlight our support for an independent and empowered Parliament. The EU Foreign Affairs Committee last discussed Venezuela on 18 July, which was attended by the Foreign Secretary.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has discussed the political and economic situation in Venezuela with the Secretary General of the Organisation of American States.
Answered by Alan Duncan
We share the concerns of the international community about the deteriorating political and economic situation in Venezuela. Economic mismanagement is producing inflation and shortages of basic goods, with a significant impact upon ordinary Venezuelans. Venezuela became an FCO Human Rights Priority Country in 2016. President Maduro has requested United Nations assistance to boost medical supplies.
The Organisation of American States (OAS) has called for the OAS Democratic Charter to be invoked unless the Venezuelan Government calls elections and releases political prisoners. The UNASUR- supported dialogue between the Government and opposition has stalled.
I met the previous Venezuelan Minister for Europe, Samuel Moncada at the EU-CELAC Foreign Minister's meeting on 26 October and discussed humanitarian issues and the economic situation. At that meeting I also raised the deteriorating situation in Venezuela with several of my Latin American and European counterparts. On 20 March I met a delegation of Venezuelan MPs from the National Assembly to discuss the situation and to highlight our support for an independent and empowered Parliament. The EU Foreign Affairs Committee last discussed Venezuela on 18 July, which was attended by the Foreign Secretary.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in Venezuela on the political situation in that country.
Answered by Alan Duncan
We share the concerns of the international community about the deteriorating political and economic situation in Venezuela. Economic mismanagement is producing inflation and shortages of basic goods, with a significant impact upon ordinary Venezuelans. Venezuela became an FCO Human Rights Priority Country in 2016. President Maduro has requested United Nations assistance to boost medical supplies.
The Organisation of American States (OAS) has called for the OAS Democratic Charter to be invoked unless the Venezuelan Government calls elections and releases political prisoners. The UNASUR- supported dialogue between the Government and opposition has stalled.
I met the previous Venezuelan Minister for Europe, Samuel Moncada at the EU-CELAC Foreign Minister's meeting on 26 October and discussed humanitarian issues and the economic situation. At that meeting I also raised the deteriorating situation in Venezuela with several of my Latin American and European counterparts. On 20 March I met a delegation of Venezuelan MPs from the National Assembly to discuss the situation and to highlight our support for an independent and empowered Parliament. The EU Foreign Affairs Committee last discussed Venezuela on 18 July, which was attended by the Foreign Secretary.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the political and economic situation in Venezuela.
Answered by Alan Duncan
We share the concerns of the international community about the deteriorating political and economic situation in Venezuela. Economic mismanagement is producing inflation and shortages of basic goods, with a significant impact upon ordinary Venezuelans. Venezuela became an FCO Human Rights Priority Country in 2016. President Maduro has requested United Nations assistance to boost medical supplies.
The Organisation of American States (OAS) has called for the OAS Democratic Charter to be invoked unless the Venezuelan Government calls elections and releases political prisoners. The UNASUR- supported dialogue between the Government and opposition has stalled.
I met the previous Venezuelan Minister for Europe, Samuel Moncada at the EU-CELAC Foreign Minister's meeting on 26 October and discussed humanitarian issues and the economic situation. At that meeting I also raised the deteriorating situation in Venezuela with several of my Latin American and European counterparts. On 20 March I met a delegation of Venezuelan MPs from the National Assembly to discuss the situation and to highlight our support for an independent and empowered Parliament. The EU Foreign Affairs Committee last discussed Venezuela on 18 July, which was attended by the Foreign Secretary.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Government of the Maldives on the political situation in that country.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
I most recently discussed the political situation in the Maldives with Maldivian Foreign Minister Dr Asim at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 28 February. I raised UK concerns about governance and human rights in the Maldives and the importance of upcoming elections being free and fair. I also reiterated the UK’s opposition to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances, and raised concern over reports of the construction of a new execution chamber in the Maldives.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the UN on the political situation in the Maldives.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
I have had no recent discussions with the UN on the political situation in the Maldives. However, there is regular engagement between UK and UN officials, including most recently meetings between the British High Commissioner and the UN Resident Coordinator to Maldives in February.
We remain extremely concerned about governance and human rights in the Maldives, not least freedom of expression and association, judicial independence, the arbitrary detention of political figures and the possible re-introduction of the death penalty. I raised these concerns with Maldivian Foreign Minister Dr Asim at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 28 February.