Foreign Affairs
Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate Excerpts(8 months ago)
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Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Con)
My Lords, nearly three and a half years after the ratification of the trade and co-operation agreement with the EU, we are at a critical juncture. It is a moment for reflection and, more importantly, for constructive engagement between the United Kingdom and the European Union, still our nearest ally and largest trading partner.
The intervening years have, regrettably, been marked by disagreements and a palpable erosion of trust but this trajectory is beginning to change and I commend the Prime Minister for his role in the Windsor Framework agreement. His success exceeded expectations and stands as a testament to what can be accomplished through negotiations marked by sincerity and a willingness to compromise. This framework not only addresses the immediate concerns of the people and businesses of Northern Ireland but safeguards the integrity of our union and the Good Friday agreement while respecting the EU single market. The Windsor Framework allows us to embark upon a new chapter characterised by closer co-operation and renewed trust.
We have already associated with Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research programme, and Copernicus, but there is, of course, more to do. I greatly welcomed the refresh of the Government’s integrated review last year. It addressed the Europe-shaped hole of the previous version, reaffirmed the Euro-Atlantic region as the core priority and, significantly, talked openly about the benefits of working with the institutions of Europe.
However, the TCA is not without its shortcomings. Negotiated under time constraints, it necessitated the disentanglement of complex political, economic and legal ties. At its core, it is a free trade agreement, yet it largely omits provisions for services and foreign policy co-operation—areas where there is considerable scope for enhancement, and where we here have much to offer.
The forthcoming review is scheduled for 2025. This period coincides with the renewal or review of key provisions, including those related to data adequacy, fisheries and energy. This is an opportune moment to re-evaluate and enhance our partnership. We must approach this review with ambition, aiming to strengthen co-operation for the mutual benefit of UK and EU businesses and consumers alike. But this co-operation requires realistic and politically viable proposals. Although there are merits in rejoining a customs union or single market, there is currently little willingness on either side for the UK to do so.
Europe and the western world are contending with instability and geopolitical challenges, with Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine serving as a reminder of the critical importance of European unity and co-operation. Yet we have no formal mechanisms for foreign and defence policy co-operation—an obvious gap in the TCA. We really must change this. I also suggest a new framework participation agreement, allowing the UK to engage selectively with EU operations, and maintaining our strategic autonomy while fostering collaboration. Additionally, a strategic partnership agreement, like that between the EU and Canada, would formalise areas of consensus and provide a structured basis for cooperation. Outside the EU, but with European partners, we should expand the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force to include like-minded nations such as Poland.
Horizon Europe runs until 2027. The successor programme, FP10, is already being discussed in Brussels and capitals in Europe. We have no role in the decision-making process, but that should not stop us working with like-minded EU member states to try to influence that programme.
Regrettably, the Partnership Council has convened only twice since its establishment. Given the dynamic and important nature of our relationship with the EU, more frequent meetings are essential to address emerging issues and find new opportunities for working together.
On trade, our businesses continue to grapple with a plethora of non-tariff barriers, further exacerbated as they now have to deal with 27 jurisdictions. In the services sector, particularly for professionals undertaking short-term work in the EU, the current patchwork of regulations presents significant obstacles. I believe both sides should revisit the TCA to see if we can offer more flexibility, as the current list of activities not requiring a work permit or visa is narrowly drawn.
The forthcoming TCA review should not be merely an administrative exercise but a pivotal opportunity to enhance the UK-EU relationship in a manner that reflects our shared interests and the changing geopolitical landscape. The Conservative European Forum has recently concluded a year-long inquiry into the TCA and our relationship with the EU. Our report, due next week, will set out recommendations aimed at enhancing the economic prosperity and collective security of both the UK and the EU. I will ensure that my noble friend the Foreign Secretary receives a copy and would urge him to pursue our recommendations with our European counterparts.
European Political Community
Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate Excerpts(2 years ago)
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Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate
To ask His Majesty’s Government how they intend to use their involvement in the new European Political Community to the advantage of the United Kingdom and for the improvement of relations with its European neighbours.
The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park) (Con)
My Lords, the UK attended the summit of the European Political Community as an independent sovereign nation, pursuing our national interest and working with our European neighbours on issues that matter to the British people, such as our support for Ukraine, energy and migration. The summit was an opportunity for the UK to lead the European debate through productive exchanges with European leaders, and we will build on this enhanced co-operation with our European neighbours.
Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Con)
I am grateful to my noble friend for those encouraging remarks and particularly for the attendance of the then Prime Minister at an event that dealt mostly with security and energy matters. Can he elucidate on future programmes for that entity? Do we know precisely what it will be discussing in future? Can he give me an assurance that our current Prime Minister will also attend? Does my noble friend also agree that we should use every opportunity to re-establish and improve our relations both with Europe and with the EU?
Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)
My Lords, it is expected—more than expected; it has been agreed—that the next host will be Moldova, followed by Spain, and the former Prime Minister Liz Truss agreed to host the third summit in the UK. Needless to say, we will engage with the hosts as well as with other partners to shape not just the event that we are hosting but those in Moldova and Spain.
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate Excerpts(3 years ago)
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Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Con)
My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Bowness, for raising this matter in this short debate. I am particularly pleased to follow him and the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, who are both the United Kingdom members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE. My interest comes, apart from in other ways, from 17 years as a UK member of the European Parliament and my ongoing interest in UK international involvement post Brexit. I apologise now that some of the things I am going to say will be rather repetitive, but I do not see any harm in underlining the importance of this organisation, so I hope the noble Lord, Lord Bowness, in particular, will forgive me if I am going to repeat some of the facts about it as I go.
Our discussion today is a bit like opening a cupboard for the first time in years and discovering something you have either forgotten about or put out of the way as you had little use for it. Most people, sadly, have no idea that the OSCE even exists, including—I have to say in following my noble friends—quite a number of Members of this House and particularly the one along the Corridor. Nevertheless, to those who do know it, it is sadly also often regarded as fairly irrelevant to the challenges facing the world and the UK in the 21st century. Some regard it as another international talking shop with no power to enforce anything against anybody. I regard it in a very different way, and I urge my noble friend to persuade his colleagues in government not only to expose the issue more to the light of day but seriously to consider ensuring that, as a diplomatic and strategic vehicle, the UK and its new post-Brexit situation can play an even greater role in the organisation.
I am not going to repeat the organisation’s whole history, but it is worth emphasising the main areas of interest: security, conflict resolution, conventional arms control, economic and environmental security and, of course, human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the monitoring of democracy and elections. The noble Lord, Lord Dubs, referred to his exercises in looking at elections. I certainly found my experiences in East Germany as an observer in the 1990 elections extremely useful, although that was not under the auspices of the OSCE.
As has been said, 57 states signed up to these functions in the Helsinki Final Act in 1975. These states cover, as the noble Lord, Lord Bowness, mentioned, a geographical area extending from the United States and Canada as far as Russia and Mongolia. Within its ranks are many diverse political systems, social deployments and environmental challenges. It is the world’s largest regional security organisation. Some of its biggest challenges are provided by the actions of its members, such as the issues of the conflicts in Georgia and the Russian occupation of Crimea and its ongoing approach to Ukraine. The response of the OSCE cannot be military, but its special monitoring missions have been doing useful work in Ukraine, with international monitors, including those from the UK, providing dispassionate evidence of activity and warning member states if they are in breach of the agreements they signed up to.
Some will say that this is not enough, but it is a fact that such reporting influences behaviour and acts as a form of restraint without the risks inherent in military threats. After all, the United Nations can pass resolutions, but itself has limits and, apart from peacekeeping missions, it cannot always act decisively in situations where resolutions are ignored. The OSCE, however, can point to successes that are more than merely jaw- jaw.
Conventional arms control in Europe through the Vienna document is one area of importance where restraint and constructive co-operation can be demonstrated. Functions include monitoring of military exercises and deployments. The open skies treaty, which gave greater transparency to military activity and with which I was coincidentally involved for a while when in government in the 1990s, has an important reflection of the right to know between all members. As a result, little can occur—or deployments be made—which is not known to everybody else. The OSCE is also working in the field of cybersecurity, which is a vital area, as we know. It is tackling organised crime in relation to the exchange of data and the vital information obtained is terribly important to all of us.
In the area of the environment—where the UK has COP 26 coming and the Government’s declared aim is to lead in the global fight to net zero—the OSCE could really be utilised more in helping us to remain at the front of that campaign. It also has special competence in the field of energy security, which remains a very big issue in achieving our aims, and as a forum for sharing best practice. That is across the 57 member states and is of course enhanced by the parliamentary assembly, on which the UK has a strong representation from both our Houses, including the noble Lords, Lord Bowness and Lord Dubs.
After all that, noble Lords may wonder why the OSCE has seemingly been neglected for so long. I know that it can work only through consensus, which is clearly missing on a number of occasions when member states do their own thing; however, as we know, influencing conduct by example, or just by airing concerns, can stabilise situations for the benefit of our citizens.
Now that we have left the institutions of the EU—I will not bore noble Lords with any further arguments on that today; “Get over it” is what noble Lords would tell me—it is really important that the UK decides which old alliances are to be enhanced or renewed and what new alliances are to be formed to replace or influence our global affairs. There is of course the Commonwealth, which remains very important; the United Nations, where our permanent membership of the Security Council is very valuable; other new and replicated trade deals that are now being negotiated; NATO, where our military priorities remain, now to be enhanced by other defence alliances further afield; and not forgetting the Council of Europe, which, again, has representatives from the UK.
The Government seem at the moment to be pursuing a bilateral approach to renewing and refreshing our European relations. This may succeed, especially with a few of our closest allies on the continent, such as Germany and France—perhaps I ought to leave France out today. We must acknowledge, of course, that even if they no longer apply to us, those countries that are member states of the EU are subject to the rules and restrictions that apply to that bloc, and always will be.
So, organisations such as the OSCE should be revisited now. As has been referred to by colleagues, we already provide it with funding, personnel and an active delegation. Perhaps the time is right for a ministerial reinnervation of our interest in and commitment to the organisation. I have complimented my noble friend Lord Bowness on a number of occasions in other debates—usually on a remote basis—but I think he is just the right person to reinnervate this organisation. In fact, he is the personification of innervation. If he agrees to this challenge, more power to his elbow; I say the same to all others of a similar disposition.
Bank for International Settlements (Immunities and Privileges) Order 2021
Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate Excerpts(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Con) [V]
My Lords, I am pleased to take part in this short debate and to add my support to the initiative of the Bank of England and the Government in bringing the Bank for International Settlements innovation hub to the UK. As other speakers, including my noble friend Lady Wheatcroft, have said, we are acknowledged as leaders in fintech and the combination of domestic skills and this institution will further consolidate that situation. I hope that the furtherance of the work of the hub will not only benefit the UK and the developed economies but will also directly impact on development of the weaker economies of the world. The bank itself has good intentions but is not yet as representative globally as I would like it to be. Can my noble friend assure me that, by hosting this hub, we will also encourage the bank to institute wider membership from those parts of the world that are currently underrepresented in its counsels?
I turn to the interesting way in which the order is presented, and the measures and entitlements it offers to bank staff and dependants. We are, of course, fully acquainted with the diplomatic immunities offered to ambassadors and others who represent their countries here in the UK, which are confirmed by the various Vienna conventions and the convention on consular relations, followed by the Diplomatic Privileges Act 1964. I will move off my script for a second. Knowing of the incredible diplomatic skills and charm of the Minister, might he have a word with his friends in the Foreign Office and see if we cannot sort out this ongoing problem regarding the diplomatic status of the EU’s ambassador? I would be pleased if he would. Having said that, I will go back to my script. In recent years, from time to time, we have witnessed some of our guests and their staff interpreting the privileges they have here in a wider context than the normal caveat of “relating to acts performed in the course of their duties”.
As we all know, there are also other immunities from prosecution available to our own citizens, where the Crown Prosecution Service believes that this might aid the conviction of a criminal, where co-operation is a key element. However, I would be interested to know how many organisations like the bank under discussion today have currently enjoyed the special immunities that this order confers? For instance, I know that the International Maritime Organization is based in London. Does it and its staff enjoy these privileges? I am assuming that there are many others too, so perhaps my noble friend might elucidate on this. I see that, in this case, the offer of immunity was a condition of securing the bid to have the bank here. Apart from any other cases of a similar kind, is it now a normal expectation that such immunities have to be offered? Is there international precedent, pursued by other states in such bids? Where others have been successful and we have not, is that because they have made better offers of this kind?
This order is also unique in allowing the exercise of Section 12 of the International Development Act 2002 for the very first time. An Order in Council by Her Majesty is an interesting feature of this measure, especially as it relates to immunities and privileges of a non-domestic body. Can my noble friend enlighten the Committee as to whether this is now regarded as a precedent in any way? Regardless of the general immunities which this order will confer, I note, as a former Immigration Minister, that bank officials and staff will, additionally, have the benefit of exemptions from immigration controls for their dependants. Was this extra provision requested as part of the bid process, or offered because of any other precedents? The main immunities are to BIS officials and employees and are wide, but the extension to dependants appears in the negative Order in Council.
The securing of this facility for the UK is, of course, to be welcomed. Only the Government and the Bank of England know the details of the competition to win the bid but it is obviously important and of interest to all noble Lords, as legislators, to be aware of the terms we need to offer in global competitions of this kind.
The UK’s Relationship with the Pacific Alliance (International Relations Committee Report)
Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate Excerpts(3 years, 9 months ago)
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Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Con) [V]
My Lords, replicating and building on the 40 trade deals with over 70 countries that the UK enjoyed as a member of the EU was never going to be easy. But, to be fair to my right honourable friend Liz Truss and her team, as of the end of 2020 they had arranged the continuation of many of those deals through the mutatis mutandis principle, which in effect carried over the same terms and conditions we had previously enjoyed.
We have also entered into memoranda of understanding with a number of other countries that will, in due course, result in trade deals. The United States remains an important target, but, as someone who has studied the workings and political mechanisms of Congress and the Senate, I hope there is a realisation that this might be much more difficult to achieve in the short term than some would hope. The new Administration in the United States may well have other priorities.
Seeking out new partners above and beyond those we have retained from our EU membership is obviously a good and necessary thing, but the announcement that the Government want the UK to join the CPTPP is of significance, especially if it builds on the connections with the Pacific Alliance advocated by the excellent report on which today’s debate is based. The possibility of the United States also joining the CPTPP is exciting, but again, I suggest, may well be unlikely in the short term.
The work of the committee in producing the report, which explored the possibility of relationships with the alliance, was of course thorough and its conclusions wise. I shall concentrate on one or two of those conclusions. First, the committee pointed out that our involvement with the four countries in the alliance has often been at too low a level to make a difference. Where Ministers should have been deployed, we have instead sent officials, albeit senior ones, to meetings. There seems to be valid criticism that our view of Latin America as a future zone of growth in trade and influence has lacked coherence. I might add that if we consider the multitude of organisations and regional alliances already in Latin America—at least 10 at present—we have a big job on our hands to keep up with each one.
The Government have recently appointed trade envoys and a trade commissioner for Latin America. I wonder whether the resources approved for those roles are sufficient. As the committee pointed out, the work allotted must also be clearly defined. Being part of a large trading organisation can be good for business, but in a post-Brexit world we need also to seek as much bilateral trade as possible with individual countries in the Pacific Alliance, but also in the wider marketplace.
The UK’s influence, when deployed through membership or association with large international organisations, is, of course, always a good thing. We bring many positive features with us, including our advocacy of a rules-based international order and of human rights, and our concern for the environment. In this context, I pay particular tribute to my noble friend Lord Howell of Guildford, the chair of the committee that produced this report, whose support for, involvement in and stressing of the importance of the Commonwealth over many years should not be understated. The Commonwealth can also increase its links with this part of the world to all our advantages.
It is of course true that the Pacific Alliance countries currently account for only 0.7% of UK exports and 0.6% of UK imports, but that offers a real challenge, and the evidence is that, given strong support from government, those figures could and should be dramatically improved in fast-moving trade opportunities. Chile, Peru and Mexico are now members of the CPTPP; Colombia wishes to join. If the UK is successful in its ambitions to join, that should provide a further stimulus to trade.
The committee’s report is a valuable contribution, and its recommendations must be seriously considered and acted on. The announcement of the CPTPP application is welcome, but like many more of our trade ambitions, it counts for little unless government also put more resources behind it. The Department for International Trade needs to be more proactive at home as well as abroad. Encouraging our exporters to look at Latin America more would be very worth while and pay massive dividends for the UK. We have rightly to look to the future in our pursuit of trading partnerships, but without losing those that have been so much to our advantage in the past and still provide the bulk of our trade.
Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [HL]
Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate Excerpts(6 years, 9 months ago)
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Baroness Stern (CB)
My Lords, Amendment 73 is tabled in my name and those of the noble Lords, Lord Kirkhope and Lord Collins, and the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer. I welcome the cross-party support this amendment has attracted. I am grateful to Mrs Kimberly Durrant, the representative of Bermuda in the UK, and Mr Benito Wheatley, director of the British Virgin Islands London office, for the useful briefing they have provided.
The amendment aims to bring transparency to the financial operations in the six British Overseas Territories that have financial centres by creating public registers of beneficial ownership of the companies based in them. One of the six—Montserrat—has already agreed to do this. Noble Lords will be aware that, since 2013, the Government have been working with these territories to develop registers of beneficial ownership that are rapidly accessible to law enforcement agencies. Amendment 73 would require the Government to go further and to give all reasonable help and support to those territories so as to make their registers publicly accessible. If this is not done, the Government should ensure it is done by making Orders in Council.
There is one change in the amendment since Committee, in that it requires the registers to be made public not by January 2019 but by January 2020. In a very useful meeting with the Minister last week—I add my voice to those who have expressed their admiration for him—he made clear that January 2019 was quite impractical for implementation. He is of course right: 2020 is much more realistic and would give a reasonable length of time for the change the amendment proposes to be brought in. When this amendment was discussed in Committee, the Minister very helpfully indicated the progress that had been made. He reported that Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands have central registers of beneficial ownership information, or similarly effective systems, now in place. This is much to be welcomed.
This is the fourth time we have discussed in your Lordships’ House the need for the overseas territories to produce public registers. Each time, the case for ending secrecy becomes stronger as more information emerges about how illicitly obtained money is protected from discovery by anonymity. It is clear that not all those who set up shell companies in offshore locations are doing so because they have something to hide, but for those who do have something to hide—drug barons, arms traders, tax evaders, government Ministers in resource-rich countries stealing money that should go to the good of the people—anonymous shell companies meet their needs very well. They assume they will not be discovered, exposed to the public gaze or prosecuted. They can pursue their criminal activities with impunity.
In the absence of the transparency this amendment calls for, we have had to depend on whistleblowers and hackers to take great personal risks in order to expose this criminality. Thanks to the work of these whistleblowers and hackers, a flow of information has emerged, from the offshore secrets database in 2013, through the Panama papers of 2016 to the Paradise papers last year. It should be noted that more than 100,000 of the accounts revealed in the Panama papers were registered in the British Virgin Islands.
This information has given law enforcement and tax collection agencies a chance to pursue a considerable amount of criminality. For instance, Europol reported at the end of 2016 that it had found in the Panama papers database nearly 3,500 probable matches to organised crime, tax fraud and other criminal activities. The report on the recent work of the Government’s Panama papers task force revealed that in October last year 66 investigations were under way into tax evasion, organised crime and money laundering—and all that is the tip of the iceberg.
In Committee, the Minister explained very helpfully to your Lordships’ House why the Government were resisting the transparency required by this amendment. He argued that, as the overseas territories have their own democratically elected Governments, it is rare for this Government to legislate for them without their consent. Where this has occurred it has related to our international human rights obligations—that is, on the abolition of the death penalty and the decriminalisation of homosexuality. He told the House:
“Financial services are the domestic responsibility of territory Governments”.
He said that to legislate without their consent to require publicly accessible registers of beneficial ownership,
“would create considerable ill-feeling”,—[Official Report, 6/12/17; col. 1117.]
and jeopardise current co-operation. He did not argue, and this is most welcome, that requiring the registers in the British Overseas Territories to be publicly accessible would put the territories at a competitive disadvantage compared with other jurisdictions that provide similar secret financial services.
The Minister quite properly sees that what this amendment asks would be difficult and would require much patient negotiation. He is right. I too see the difficulties, but I also see hospitals and schools unbuilt because the money for them has been siphoned off; women trafficked and drawn into prostitution because there is no other way to feed their family or get healthcare for sick parents; mothers dying in childbirth because there is no money for maternity services; and much more.
The British Overseas Territories are British, and Britain is a global leader in fighting corruption. At the G20 summit in 2013, David Cameron promised that the UK would create a central register of companies’ beneficial ownership information. The UK is now the only country in the G20 to have established such a register. He was a strong advocate of such registers in the British Overseas Territories and elsewhere. The 2016 summit hosted by the UK was a significant event that moved anti-corruption work higher up the global agenda. Furthermore, the UK is at the forefront of providing development aid and promoting human rights internationally.
The Minister has an undoubted commitment to human rights and the rule of law. It has become very clear during the proceedings of the Bill that the levels of fraud, tax evasion and corruption that are causing so much misery in the poorest parts of the world are an abuse of human rights and the rule of law. I therefore urge the Minister to reconsider his view that we can wait until public registers become the global standard and only then require the British Overseas Territories to move to greater transparency. I beg to move.
Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Con)
My Lords, as a co-signatory to the amendment I support the noble Baroness, Lady Stern. I shall speak for only a few moments because we have already heard from her a very good explanation of the amendment.
I speak from the point of view of my support for the initiative that was originally taken by this country at the G20 summit in 2013 by my then right honourable friend David Cameron, and pursued by him very vigorously in the further widely supported summit in 2016, to provide this country with a position as a leader in the area of financial propriety. In my view, that is something that needs to be continued, particularly because this country is entering into a very uncertain future.
Whatever one’s views are about our present negotiations with the EU, and indeed the other negotiations that it will be necessary for us to have with the rest of the world, one of the areas in which this country has an enviable reputation—the noble Baroness referred to this a few moments ago—is the way in which we deal with financial matters. We are not perfect; everyone knows that, and other amendments that we are considering tonight will perhaps suggest that. Nevertheless, we are a country that has shown an example of being open and transparent and having standards. We have extended those things to public life, quality of products, the environment, health and, particularly, our financial conduct. Because of the uncertain future, we need constantly to look at this on the basis of David Cameron’s gold standard, rather than simply following behind global standards.
The Government have made progress, and I pay tribute to my noble friend, who has listened carefully to the concerns of those of us who wish to move in this direction. I also acknowledge that great progress has been made by both the Crown dependencies and the overseas territories in moving towards openness and transparency. However, what I believe to be a reasonable compromise on an ultimate date for the conclusion of public registers open to access will in my view tie in extremely well with this country’s future negotiations and arrangements, and the need for this country to attract more support all over the world from a great number of new investors and others who wish to be part of what we control.
This is a modest measure in many ways, but I am convinced that it gives a clear, positive and attractive measure that the world can see, so that it can continue to have total faith in this country’s integrity.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Ministerial Guidance
Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate Excerpts(6 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
If I started talking about the Foreign Secretary’s close and constructive relationships—there are many I could name—I fear it would take us beyond the 30-minute limit. We shall be coming to the subject later, but I can say briefly that the Foreign Secretary has just returned from a very important and constructive visit to Iran and the Middle East, where I am sure noble Lords will agree that we have important relationships. He is leading from the front in ensuring that those relationships are not just sustained but strengthened.
Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Con)
Does my noble friend agree, in answer to the Question of the noble Lord, Lord Soley, that diplomacy does not require guidance or any teaching at all? We have been fortunate in this country to have had many interesting individuals who have carried out the role of Foreign Secretary over centuries. Not all of them have been straitjacketed by guidance or anything coming from an official level. Surely my noble friend agrees that the only way in which we can judge the success of diplomacy is whether it serves the best interests at any time of this country.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
I agree with my noble friend and add that in the role of Foreign Secretary, any Foreign Office Minister—or, for that matter, any Minister—personality also counts.