Sub-Saharan Africa: Diplomatic Relationships

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Excerpts

Tuesday 14th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I read the piece in the Economist and it was very useful. The approach that we are consulting on at the moment will touch on many of the issues raised by my noble friend. We want to see an approach that is more about partnership than paternalism, working alongside African nations. My noble friend Lord Collins is in Botswana today, and I know that is precisely the approach that he wishes to take.

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, what assessment have His Majesty’s Government made of the growing influence of the BRICS grouping, in particular its economic influence? There are also the issues of security and cyber, which will impact sub-Saharan Africa as well as other parts of the world. BRICS is a growing grouping, and we saw its direct contest with the Commonwealth during the recent CHOGM held in the Pacific.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We do not think of it as a contest. That was just a diary coincidence, if I can put it that way. It is not for us to tell African nations or anybody else which groupings they should align with, but we find that there is a desire—a genuine desire, I think—to work more closely with the United Kingdom. Sometimes we have perhaps not put the energy that we might into that; sometimes we have perhaps made it too difficult compared with attracting investment from other nations. We want to consider and do all these things as well as we can, as we get to the end of our consultation on the new approach.