Russia and Ukraine: Seizure of Naval Vessels

Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Goldie]

The UK has made its response clear. I reaffirm that it is very important that we do not act exclusively and on our own in relation to such an incident, and that we act with the appropriate senior partners in NATO, the United Nations and the OSCE. That is the effective and appropriate way to respond to something like this.

[Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab)]

My Lords, are territorial waters in the Azov Sea clearly delineated and accepted by the powers involved in this struggle?

[Baroness Goldie]

My understanding is that, unlike the Black Sea which is regarded as an area of international waters, the Sea of Azov—being virtually landlocked by two countries—has been the subject of bilateral agreement between Russia and Ukraine. That was a 2003 agreement; it dealt with freedom of navigation in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. Those two countries are perfectly entitled to make that bilateral agreement but one expects both sides to honour and respect it, and not so blatantly to contravene and breach it as has been evident recently.