United Nations International Day of Peace

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

The important thing is not to take our eye off the ball and to focus on how we can achieve peace. A classic example of that is in the eastern DRC, where conflict is raging but we do not see too much attention being placed on it. I have been in constant touch with the President of Angola, who initiated the first ceasefire, and with President Tshisekedi and President Kagame about how they can approach it. We now have the Americans playing a critical role in Doha in bringing the parties together. We are absolutely focused on using all the tools in our toolkit to ensure peace. The most important part of that toolkit is our diplomacy and re-engaging on the international stage, which, sadly, was a little missing for the last 14 years.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, now that India is the fourth or fifth largest economy in the world, does the Minister agree that it is about time that India was a permanent member of the Security Council?