Cuba: Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement

Debate between Lord Sahota and Lord Collins of Highbury

Tuesday 25th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

I shall not repeat the figures from the announcement about the recent release, but I reassure the noble Lord that the United Kingdom Government, as did the previous Government, have called for the immediate release of all political prisoners, without condition, and that will remain our position. We are absolutely determined to advance political development in Cuba, and we will focus on ensuring that human rights are respected.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, as our Government are on good terms with the President of America these days, will they ask the President of America for Americans to leave Guantanamo Bay, which is something that the Cuban Government have wanted them to do for the last 60 years—but they would not leave?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

That is a base that was agreed and remains a sovereign base for the US. I am certainly not going to make any commitments in that regard. Our purpose as a Government remains to have good relationships with all Governments, because the way to a peaceful world is to ensure that we maintain good relationships with all Governments—particularly with our longest-standing ally, the United States. They remain important in terms of keeping global peace.

Gaza: Ceasefire

Debate between Lord Sahota and Lord Collins of Highbury

Tuesday 18th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

Let me reassure the noble Baroness that we are doing precisely that: we are working with all our allies. One thing is very clear: if anyone was listening to the “Today” programme this morning, they will certainly have heard former Israeli ambassadors express deep concern that these actions will impact on the possibility of relationships with Arab countries. We actually saw some positive signs of a rapprochement with Saudi Arabia; all of this risks that. We should focus much more on ensuring that unity of diplomatic effort to get the ceasefire back on course and have further, longer peace talks so that we can both defend Israel and protect Palestine.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, last year the EU representative for the Middle East said on TV that “before 7 October, Gaza was an open prison and after 7 October it became an open graveyard”. What does the Minister make of that statement?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My noble friend highlights many comments that we have heard on previous occasions in this Chamber. The situation in Gaza has been horrific, but there is no doubt that the events that caused those hostages to be taken were also horrific. We have also got to think about the levels of sexual violence that those hostages were put to. There is no escaping the fact that we have to focus on the future. We have to ensure that we get proper aid and support into the Occupied Territories and Gaza and we have to focus on a much longer-term solution, which this ceasefire agreement gave. There were stages and we knew it was not going to be easy, but all our diplomatic efforts are going to be focused on that.

Taiwan

Debate between Lord Sahota and Lord Collins of Highbury

Thursday 17th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

As the noble Lord knows, I have also visited Taiwan. The United Kingdom has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan but a strong unofficial relationship based on deep and growing ties in a wide range of areas, underpinned, as the noble Lord said, by democratic values. We will continue to engage with Taiwan on economic, trade, educational and cultural ties. This relationship delivers significant benefits to both the United Kingdom and Taiwan and has featured a wide range of exchanges and visits; for example, on environmental, judicial and educational issues. We will continue to establish our relationship on that basis.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a well-known geopolitical fact that India and China do not see eye to eye over many issues in Asia. Are our Government regularly in touch with the Indian Government over this issue?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

One of the vital aspects of the recent United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council, certainly in my engagement with both, is that we establish strong dialogue with both India and China on how we address the tensions that are developing. When I was addressing the Security Council on enlargement, we discussed with both the P5 and the 10 members of the Security Council that are there on an elected basis how dialogue and consensus is an important way of moving forward. I assure the noble Lord that we will continue dialogue on that basis.