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John Cooper
Main Page: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)Department Debates - View all John Cooper's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(1 week, 1 day ago)
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Mr Lammy
I am very grateful to my right hon. Friend for raising this issue. The Prime Minister wrote to President Sisi on 26 December and 8 January. The National Security Adviser, Jonathan Powell, was in Egypt on 2 January, and I met the Egyptian Foreign Minister in Saudi Arabia on Sunday. This remains our No. 1 issue. We have raised it on every single occasion, and we continue to press for clemency, for understanding and for Alaa’s release.
John Cooper (Dumfries and Galloway) (Con)
The official readout from “Operation kowtow”, the Chancellor’s mission to Beijing, says that she
“urged China to cease its support for Russia’s defence industrial base, which is enabling Russia to maintain its illegal war against Ukraine.”
Did the Chancellor elicit any such assurances, and if not, what does it mean for the Foreign Secretary’s supposed reset of relations with the people of the Great Hall?
Mr Lammy
Can I just remind the hon. Gentleman that it was our last Foreign Secretary who had a pint with President Xi? The Chancellor of the Exchequer, as she is able to outline, was able to raise all the issues—Jimmy Lai, the security law in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and a whole range of others—but we are only able to do that by engagement.