Piracy

Lord Howe of Aberavon Excerpts

Wednesday 24th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howe of Aberavon]

My Lords, it is a privilege to follow my noble friend, who has opened this debate with characteristic clarity. He certainly indentifies a situation that clearly calls for positive consideration in the context of UK foreign policy. We certainly have a substantial interest. We also have a significant capacity to try to help. We need to follow, if we can, the advice that I so often quote:

“Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the world”,

as Archimedes said. That is where my noble friend has started in this debate.

There are several helpful footholds for Britain in intervening in this. First, there is our Commonwealth membership, which gives us solidarity with the other Commonwealth states which surround the Indian Ocean, the African eastern coast and, indeed, the Aden Gulf—all of which look for relief from Somalia’s problems. Secondly, we are going there putting forth propositions with the backing of the European Union. That is important. It is the first European Union naval mission. EU NAVFOR is its codename, and the additional name Atalanta almost gives it a NATO benediction as well. Certainly it is right for us to be trying to intervene and be as helpful as we are.

Other interventions are taking place in teaching the Somalis how to improve their coastal defence and train their own soldiers more effectively. They are all clearly directed towards trying to enhance the ocean’s security, which will be helpful to Somalis themselves as well as to the rest of the world. We are supported in our advocacy of this approach by two major states, the United States and Russia, with whom we of course rub shoulders in NATO.

The propositions that we are trying to uphold are correct and useful. When I last spoke a year ago about Somalia, I discussed the social problems and tensions which still arose in those countries, and it looked like being a real problem for us to be intervening with it. However, their constitutional structures have at least held; they have changed substantially, as my noble friend has pointed out. Corruption and conflict have remained, not diminished. All of that increases the case for us to be trying in this way, not only to evade the risk of piracy on that part of the world, but also to enhance and improve the structure, lives and well-being of the citizens of Somalia itself. For all those reasons, I commend the analysis presented by my noble friend.