CHOGM, G7 and NATO Summits

Lord McDonald of Salford Excerpts

Monday 4th July 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord McDonald of Salford (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the Leader for repeating the Statement. I have two questions. First, all these summits agreed that there needs to be an increase in defence spending; this was said most loudly in NATO, but it also came from the other two summits. Given that the British economy is growing so slowly, where will cuts be made to other expenditure to fund that increase? Will the Government lead the necessary national debate, as we get our minds around that consequence? Secondly, as the Minister outlined, we have been very generous to Ukraine; that has come from British inventory, so can she update the House on plans to fill the gaps that are now appearing in our inventory?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

As I said, the investments that we have made and outlined mean we will be on track to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by the end of the decade. Future spending decisions will be for the next spending review, and no doubt there will be many discussions about that in the run-up to it. In relation to our inventory, the Ministry of Defence is working hard to ensure that we have the right amount of munitions, weapons et cetera that we need.

Ukraine Update

Lord McDonald of Salford Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

As I said, the sanctions announced today are only the first tranche, and we will step up sanctions if Russian aggression continues.

[Lord McDonald of Salford (CB)]

My Lords, the Leader has made clear that sanctions will be the cornerstone of the UK’s response. To be effective, sanctions have to be international and co-ordinated. The country that is sanctioning suffers along with the country that is sanctioned. So if Germany is to do everything we need on energy—not just Nord Stream 2 but Nord Stream 1, which provides 55 billion cubic metres of gas per year for Germany—and all of that has to be in place, so must everything that the UK can contribute via the City of London. This needs to be an international effort. It would usually be co-ordinated through the United Nations, but the Security Council is clearly not available as the Russians have a veto, so in what international forum will HMG co-ordinate the necessary sanctions effort?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

We have been working with partners through NATO, the UN, the OSCE and the G7—we are anticipating a further G7 call later this week—and obviously we have been having bilateral meetings with countries around the world. Ministers have talked to our allies in Kraków, Kyiv, Brussels, Tallinn, Munich and New York. We are working internationally and are co-ordinating our response with our allies and partners, for exactly the reasons the noble Lord gave.

Integrated Review

Lord McDonald of Salford Excerpts

Wednesday 17th March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord McDonald of Salford (CB)]

The integrated review identifies Russia as the country that poses the most immediate threat to the United Kingdom. Fair enough—from the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko to the poisoning of Dawn Sturgess, the UK has experience of Putin’s Russia. Nevertheless, can the noble Baroness confirm that Her Majesty’s Government are open to building a constructive working relationship with Moscow based on mutual respect? From dealing with climate change to the business of the Security Council, we need to work together.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

The noble Lord has much recent experience of this, so I bow to his knowledge and expertise. He will know, but I can say, that we maintain functional channels of engagement with the Russian Government to raise concerns and discuss global challenges. As he says, we are using our COP 26 presidency to engage Russia on climate change and clean energy. As fellow P5 members, we continue to engage on international peace and security, so there are open channels. But, as he will know, at the same time we are committed to maintaining a robust response to malign activity by Russia. We also use these channels to make clear that there can be no normalisation of the relationship until Russia stops destabilising behaviour, both towards us and our allies.