Queen’s Speech

Debate between Lord Howell of Guildford and Lord Cope of Berkeley

Thursday 17th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cope of Berkeley]

That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty as follows:

“Most Gracious Sovereign—We, Your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, beg leave to thank Your Majesty for the most gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament”.

[The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Howell of Guildford)]

My Lords, first, your Lordships might like to know that this summer, which will be a very busy one in this nation, we expect to welcome and look after about 120 foreign leaders and Prime Ministers and their entourages for the Olympic Games, as well as some 40,000 foreign media personnel. I hope that there will be no doubt in your Lordships’ minds that we at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will be working hard to look after that lot.

On Tuesday last, my right honourable friend the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary set out the Government’s two principal foreign policy aims: first, to respond to urgent challenges and crises in a way that promotes Britain’s national interest and our democratic values; and, secondly, to equip our country to be a safe, prosperous and influential nation in the long term, in the service of poverty reduction and conflict prevention, and in the upholding of human rights, religious freedoms and environmental safeguards.

To do this successfully, our nation needs to adapt. Wealth and power are shifting globally, so once again in our history we need to look beyond our traditional partners of recent decades to the new and emerging economies of Asia, Latin America and Africa. The world’s pattern of energy resources and energy powers, too, is being transformed by new gas discoveries and low-carbon aspirations. To make the most of the enormous opportunities that these shifts offer, we must move to reinvigorate and refocus our diplomatic network and our policy priorities.

Of course, that does not mean forgetting old friends. The United States of America will remain our strongest ally; our relations with our European partners will remain an essential pillar of our foreign policy; and we should recognise the growing importance of the Commonwealth, which is evolving into one of the most relevant networks in the changing world, embracing some of its most dynamic economies. I have called it the necessary network of the 21st century. It is certainly one of the key gateways to the great and rich new markets of the future, in which we must succeed.

I will say a word about the Arab spring and the developments of the past 18 months. Obviously, 2011 was a momentous year. Already, the Arab spring has brought huge changes to the Middle East and north Africa. Significant challenges remain, but the Government are optimistic about the road ahead. This summer, Libya is set to hold its first democratic elections in more than 40 years. Egypt’s citizens are about to choose their next President, and we hope that this will be an important step towards building a prosperous and stable future for the Egyptian people. Bahrain has committed to a reform process and has made some progress, although there is a good way to go. Peaceful reform is under way in such nations as Algeria, Jordan and Morocco.

However, there is still much to do. The region now needs to consolidate and build on these gains, taking further economic and political measures to entrench stability. The events of the Arab spring have also made ever more pressing the need for a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. We urge both sides to avoid any steps that would undermine the prospect of successful negotiations. In this House on Tuesday, I welcomed the news of the Egypt-brokered deal on the Palestinian hunger strikers.

The Government will continue to support the process of reform that is under way in the Middle East and north Africa. In February last year we launched the Arab Partnership Initiative, which aims to support long-term political and economic reform in the region. We committed £110 million over four years through the initiative. Last year the joint FCO-DfID Arab Partnership Fund funded more than 50 projects in 11 countries in the region. We intend to intensify that work over the coming years.

Meanwhile, Iran’s stance and influence remain dangerous. We have yet to see any firm indication that it is willing to take concrete action to address concerns about the potential military dimension of its nuclear programme. We want Iran to take steps to build confidence in its nuclear activities, and we will maintain the pressure until genuine progress is made, including through sanctions and the current EU embargo on oil imports.

In Syria, the situation clearly remains completely unacceptable. More than 10,000 people are estimated to have been killed and many thousands displaced or detained. While we welcome the deployment of UN monitors in Syria in accordance with Kofi Annan’s six-point plan, which is already having an impact, it is deeply concerning that the violence continues. The Annan plan remains the best chance to find a way through Syria’s crisis, but we will not hesitate to return to the UN Security Council if rapid progress is not made.

I turn now to the broader pattern and the rise of Africa and the emerging powers. The positive developments in north Africa reflect a broader trend on the continent as a whole: that is, the gradual realisation of Africa’s enormous potential. Significant challenges, of course, remain in sub-Saharan Africa, as we all know. We are very concerned, for example, by the rise in military tensions between Sudan and South Sudan, and urge both parties to comply with the African Union’s action plan. In fact, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and associated groups in Africa remain a threat, particularly across the Sahel. We have seen an increase in terrorist attacks in Nigeria, and the Sahel and the Horn are suffering food and water crises.

These developments, however, should not dilute the broader message: it is a time of significant change in Africa. Many commentators need to catch up with that new reality. Infant mortality is down; foreign investment is up. The IMF forecasts that the African economy will grow by 5.8% this year, which sounds a lot from our perspective here in Britain. The continent has an increasing presence on the international stage. South Africa, a member of the G20, is playing an increasingly active role globally. Angola, Mozambique, Tanzania and Ghana are the new potential stars. I visited Ghana the week before last. Nigeria, with its wealth of natural resources, is unlocking its potential as a considerable regional energy power. Even in Somalia there is new momentum in the political process following the successful London Conference on Somalia. It is right, therefore, that we develop and strengthen our relations with Africa.

Equally, we need to raise our game in the emerging and already advanced economies of Asia, particularly in China and in Latin America, but also with the Korean and Japanese giants and world leaders. We have already increased our efforts to promote trade in these markets. In 2011, UK goods exports to Columbia increased by 35%. In India the figure is 37% and Indonesia an impressive 44%. We believe that we can do even better and will intensify our efforts. We have to recognise and work constructively with massive Chinese involvement and investment right across the globe, including in the UK, and not forgetting our continuing ties with Hong Kong.

In doing so, we will not lessen for a moment our focus on human rights, which remain at the core of Britain’s values. In particular, discrimination and violence against women and girls remain among the most widespread human rights abuses. Tackling these issues is a priority for the UK and central to our work to advance gender equality and empower women.

It is Britain’s leadership, supported by our international partners, that has helped to secure tangible, real reform in countries such as Burma, where we are finally seeing a hopeful path forward and which my right honourable friend visited only recently. Meanwhile, nearer home, Europe is seeking to recover from the biggest financial crisis for generations. In Chancellor Merkel’s words, we are in a period of great uncertainty. That is very apparent.

Europe faces two big economic challenges: resolving the eurozone crisis, if that is possible, which remains a major obstacle to our economic recovery, and responding to the relative shift of economic power to the east and south—all predicted by some of us 15 years ago and to which rather slow-learning commentators have at last woken up.

While it is for each eurozone member to decide how to handle the crisis, particularly the immediate Greek crisis that fills our newspapers, we continue to believe that control of public finances and structural reform to increase productivity and competitiveness are the only realistic ways forward. We have just introduced a Bill to approve an amendment to the EU treaties and confirm the compatibility with the treaties of the eurozone-only European stability mechanism. We have ensured that the UK will not be liable through the EU budget for any future EU eurozone bailouts once the ESM comes into force.

We share common values and interests with our EU partners, and can use the collective weight of the EU in the right situations to increase our impact on the international stage. But the European Union must reform as well, and we will play a strong part in that. The EU must support peace and stability in the western Balkans. We look forward to Croatia’s accession to the EU, due in July 2013, and will bring forward a Bill to approve this. We will also continue to develop our co-operation with Russia.

On Afghanistan, my noble friend Lord Astor will have more to say on this issue and on our defence dispositions when he winds up this evening. However, I would like to pay a very strong tribute to all the British personnel who have lost their lives or been injured serving their country there. The process of transitioning security control to Afghan forces is on track, and we expect the ANSF to take a lead on security responsibilities across the country by mid-2013, with ISAF moving to a supporting role.

The Chicago summit later this month will focus on the size, make-up and funding of the Afghan national security forces. My right honourable friend the Defence Secretary has already announced that Britain will contribute £70 million a year from 2015 to fund the ANSF. As the transition in 2014 approaches, it is more important than ever that we engage with Afghanistan’s neighbours, including Pakistan and the central Asian states, and this we are most certainly doing.

A common theme in what I have outlined today is the role of networks in the modern, globalised world. States are increasingly organising themselves into networks, ranging from the political—I have already mentioned the European Union—to the economic, social and cultural. Let us take one of the world’s greatest networks, the Commonwealth. This Government are committed to making more out of the Commonwealth, an organisation uniquely placed to advance our foreign policy and trade objectives. This is why Commonwealth Heads of Government agreed in Perth last year—a meeting I attended—to some of the most significant reforms in the organisation’s history. More than ever, now is the time, as we celebrate Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee and welcome the world’s leaders here, to make the most of our Commonwealth connections.

We will in due course publish the Government’s new White Paper on our relations with the UK’s overseas territories, another important network. Their future welfare forms part of our larger determination to assist small island states, not least those in the Commonwealth in the Caribbean, which face major challenges; for example, climate issues and crippling energy costs. I stress that we remain absolutely committed to the rights of the people of the Falkland Islands to self-determination and to develop their own economy.

That brings me to the network of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office itself, my own department. Over the past year we have taken steps to substantially reinvigorate our diplomatic network. We have put the Foreign and Commonwealth Office back at the heart of government in the making of British foreign policy. By the end of this Parliament, we will have deployed 300 extra staff in more than 20 countries around the world, and we will have opened up to 11 new British embassies and eight new consulates or trade offices in the emerging nations. We are achieving this while making £100 million per year in savings in the Foreign Office budget, as required by the FCO’s spending review settlement.

At this point I would like to pay a warm tribute to the FCO’s committed staff across the globe, often operating in very difficult conditions, and those of the Department for International Development and Ministry of Defence, who work tirelessly in support of our country around the world.

In security terms, the same kind of attitude and priority shift as on the economic and trade fronts is warranted. There is no dispute that America remains the most powerful hard-power military nation and ally, but in a world of dispersed power, cloud information stores and e-enabled, non-state threats, new instruments and techniques of influence and persuasion are required to underpin security and prevent the exercise of hostile force against British citizens and interests. We need, if I may quote Her Majesty’s own words, the,

“camaraderie, warmth and mutual respect”,

of other countries, which our overidentification with past policy and approaches failed to deliver and, in some cases, repelled.

Instead, we need to rely on new network and soft-power intimacies through: local government links; educational links; language links; cultural links such as our museum activities branching out from the UK; the BBC World Service and the British Council; parliamentary links; common judicial practices; common law similarities; common professional standards in medicine, science, accountancy and advanced research of all kinds; civil society networks, religious and faith ties; and the enduring power of ideas and innovation in all fields and every kind of service and design package that our creative and original thinking can generate. Alongside all this, we have become, in the words of the former Prime Minister, Sir John Major, a “development superpower”. It was good that, last year, no fewer than 143,710 Commonwealth students sought to come here. More British students should be encouraged to go to the great new universities of modern Asia.

Sixty years after Dean Acheson’s jibe about Britain having lost an empire and not found a role, we are now finding a role, despite misplaced American comment to the contrary. Britain is emerging as an agile new network power, positioning itself consciously and effectively in line with the new global patterns of economic power, trade flows, markets and influence. We are becoming a safe haven for the world’s investment and wealth.

Europe is our region and neighbourhood; America is our ally and friend; the Commonwealth is our family; and the changing world is our stage. If we are clever, wise and patient, we have every chance on this stage of maintaining and building on our prosperity and contributing decisively, as we must and should, to world stability and peace.

Gaza Flotilla

Debate between Lord Howell of Guildford and Lord Cope of Berkeley

Wednesday 2nd June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

I shall have to check on whether we have been in touch with the Egyptian Government. Obviously, the Egyptians are very much part of this story. They have very recently removed their part of the blockade on Gaza. More generally, we are hoping for a more positive and active role in this whole area by Egypt, which is an enormous country, than we have seen in the recent past. This may be because the Egyptians face certain internal problems, but a more active role by Egypt and the regional partners generally in this whole affair would be very welcome indeed.

[Lord Cope of Berkeley]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Cope of Berkeley]

My Lords, in his Statement, my noble friend spoke of the possibility that some of those aboard this ship may be charged with offences against the Israelis who boarded it. What right would Israeli courts have to try anyone for offences apparently committed in international waters on a Turkish ship? What on earth would be the jurisdiction of the Israeli courts over any such offence?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

That raises the broader question as to whether the operation in international waters was legal and covered by the provisions of war or whether it will turn out to have been illegal. Obviously, the Israeli authorities consider that those individuals who they believe took violent action against the people parachuted on to the deck of the “Mavi Marmara” are people who attacked their soldiers and should be charged. That is the view of the Israelis and, although we may think that other issues should be resolved first, the Israeli authorities clearly wish to examine whether these people who attacked their soldiers should be charged.