Nigeria

Debate between Lord Swire and Tony Baldry

Monday 12th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Swire]

I stand alongside the shadow Minister in welcoming the reopening of the school in Peshawar. We should all stand together against violence and terrorism around the world. By doing that, we can face it down.

The shadow Minister asked about UK support. I imagine he was referring to the package of support announced on 12 June 2014 by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House, then the Foreign Secretary, who is in his place now. Since then we have enlarged our programme of capacity-building support for the Nigerian armed forces to provide direct tactical training and advice to the Nigerian forces engaged in this fight against terrorism. With France and the United States we are supporting regional intelligence-sharing arrangements between Nigeria and its neighbours. As I said to the hon. Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather), a DFID-US aid partnership will draw 1 million more school children into education by 2020, which includes increased support for girls’ education in particular. This is in addition to the £1 million which we committed in May to the UN safe schools initiative, which I alluded to earlier. DFID is providing advice and assistance to Nigeria for a more strategic approach to economic development in the north.

The right hon. Gentleman referred to the brutality of Boko Haram. There is no other word that better describes their actions. They are extraordinarily brutal to their own Muslim brothers, as well as to Christians—indeed, to any one who seems to get in their way. The tales of what they leave behind when they move into these areas are too ghastly to rehearse here this afternoon. They are one of the most brutal organisations known to man.

The issue that caught the attention of this House and of the world was the abduction of the Chibok girls. We are still supporting the Nigerian authorities in trying to establish the girls’ location through the provision of surveillance assets and intelligence expertise. Information generated by these assets has been provided to an intelligence fusion cell in Abuja, where British personnel are working alongside Nigerian, American and French colleagues. We are clearly unable to comment on the results of ongoing intelligence operations, as the House will accept, but while the girls are still missing our resolve and that of the international community to continue the search remain strong. I remind the House that we are dealing with an area the size of Belgium under the control of Boko Haram, and intelligence is difficult, but we are not giving up at this point.

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

What is happening in northern Nigeria with Boko Haram is grotesque and it is important that the House and everyone else should demonstrate that all human life is equally valid and equally sacred. My right hon. Friend made it clear that he is the Minister with responsibility for relations with the Commonwealth, and as the right hon. Member for Warley (Mr Spellar), who spoke for the Opposition, made clear, this is not just about northern Nigeria; it equally applies to the north-west frontier province in Pakistan. What is the potential for the Commonwealth as an institution to show solidarity by ensuring that Commonwealth countries act collectively to support Commonwealth members that are seeking to resist terrorism and fundamentalism?

[Mr Swire]

My right hon. Friend raises an extremely good point. I am the Minister with responsibility for the Commonwealth, although I do not have direct responsibility for Nigeria, and I have been asking officials about this matter this afternoon. I think that there is a role for the Commonwealth. Particularly in Nigeria, more work could be done locally through organisations such as the African Union, but the Nigerian Government have to want other countries to come in and do that. It is worth looking at a pan-Commonwealth approach to dealing with terrorism of this nature, from which few countries currently seem to be immune, and I shall raise it with the secretary-general.

North Korea

Debate between Lord Swire and Tony Baldry

Monday 16th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Swire]

The BBC takes a view about where its resources are best employed and about how people can best access its broadcasting abilities. At the end of the day, whatever representations we make to the BBC, it quite properly makes the final decision on where it wants to broadcast. That is how the BBC is enshrined in charter, and it is how it should remain.

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

Do not recent events in North Korea demonstrate the need for a clear, continuous and candid dialogue between the Foreign Office and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs? Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Prime Minister’s recent visit to China was extremely welcome in thickening and deepening the UK’s relations with that country?

[Mr Swire]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. I was encouraged by the levels of access that the Prime Minister and his ministerial team were granted by the Chinese authorities. Political and diplomatic relations are now good, while bilateral trade is, of course, extremely good and inward investment is good. It is critical, as my right hon. Friend says, that China continues to play a lead role in trying to resolve what has been for many decades now an impenetrable problem of this rogue despotic regime in North Korea, treading on the lives of its people. This cannot go on indefinitely. It is up to all of us in the international community not only to prevent some of the regional instabilities created by this situation, but to do something for the people who are living there in the most horrific circumstances.