South Sudan

Lord Teverson Excerpts

Monday 26th March 2012 Grand Committee

[Lord Teverson]

My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, for getting this important subject on the Order Paper at a time when it has been quite difficult to get the issues of South Sudan, in particular, heard since independence. I am privileged to chair the House of Lords EU Sub-Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Policy. We did a report on South Sudan at around the time of independence and we have followed it since then. It is a report which we have followed up on a number of occasions.

Like the noble Lord, Lord Jay, I would say that the fact that the referendum took place, and that independence happened with both Presidents at the ceremony, is perhaps a sign that things can work. Certainly, our committee has looked at the situation and seen the dire consequences that will come if we carry on down the trajectory that we are on at the moment. It particularly concerns us that South Sudan should have taken the decision to cut off oil and, as the noble Lord, Lord Bates, has just said, its route out through Sudan itself. I am afraid that there is no alternative and that there probably will not be even in the long term. The oil reserves are not large enough and I suspect that, after this, any investment in such a project would be equally difficult.

It is very depressing that we have this breakdown and that government revenues will be cut by a staggering 98 per cent because of that lack of agreement over the oil price. As far as I can see, that is almost equivalent to a mutually assured destruction between the two states of Sudan, although north Sudan relies a mere 30 per cent to 40 per cent on oil revenues, which needs to be sorted. I should point out that we saw very strongly in our own report that South Sudan is not necessarily that good at investing its own oil revenues when it has them. Some $11 billion of oil reserves were not accounted for but they were there and little development has actually taken place, so there are problems all around here.

I have three questions to ask the Minister. First, I understand that the South Sudan Government are now trying actively to join the Cotonou agreement, which I hope can happen quickly. There are all sorts of artificial barriers that could slow that process down but I hope that it can happen quickly and I should like to hear that reassurance from my noble friend. Secondly, there is a proposed EU CSDP mission to protect the security of Juba airport, which is really the only direct gateway into South Sudan. We all know that many European missions take a long time to source, decide on and then implement. Is that due to happen? Is the timescale satisfactory and does my noble friend see that the normal barriers that there are on such missions will be removed?

My last point comes back to one that echoes very much the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Jay. China has a unique wish or motivation to sort this out. Both Sudans are an important source of oil to China and one that China greatly needs. Chinese expenditure on oil finances both those treasuries. I ask my noble friend whether the British Government, together perhaps with the European Union, are trying to persuade China to move outside what we might call its zone of comfort to ensure that it, through its unique role, can bring a solution where maybe more normal passages or channels do not work.