G8 Meeting Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Teverson
Main Page: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Teverson's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(11 years, 3 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, I very much welcome the Government’s decision to concentrate on west Africa. It is an area where drug and human trafficking are a great problem. What do the Government intend to do in terms of stabilising democracy in some of these nations, for instance in Mali, Niger and Guinea-Bissau, to stop the problems escalating in future?
The recent tragic events earlier this year in Algeria and Mali showed that different nations have different expertise that they can bring to the table. It is obvious that wherever there are ungoverned spaces, that is where the threat of extremism starts to rise. We have seen that in Mali. The discussions at this G8 will be about how we can harness that expertise from different nations and bring it together to be able to come forward with solutions for these areas which are proving to be extremely challenging.