Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Simmonds Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)]

7. What recent discussions he has had with the Indian Government on the non-payment of invoices submitted by Satellite Information Services following its coverage of the 2010 Commonwealth games.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mark Simmonds)]

We have raised the issue with the Indian Government on a number of occasions, including at ministerial level, and continue to do so with relevant officials, most recently in July. As my hon. Friend will be aware, progress on the issue has been delayed pending the outcome of judicial proceedings.

[Mr Robertson]

The Minister will be aware that the report by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation exonerated the company of any criminal wrongdoing over a year ago. I think that he will also be aware that the court has met regularly to discuss the report but has been adjourned on every single occasion. Does he agree that the prolonged case leaves the company in a very difficult position, and will he continue to do everything he can to speed the matter up?

[Mark Simmonds]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight the length of time the case has taken. He is correct to point out that the police filed a report to the court in July 2012 but that the formal judicial process has not concluded. He will also be aware that the time scale for the proceedings is, of course, a matter for the Indian courts, but I can give both him and the company the assurance that we sympathise with the position it is in and will continue to raise the issue with the Indian Government.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

8. What recent representations he has made to the Chinese Government on human rights. [R]

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[Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab)]

13. What recent discussions he has had on the threat from terrorist groups, organised crime and piracy in west Africa.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mark Simmonds)]

We take the threat of criminal and terrorist groups in west Africa seriously. Officials and Ministers have had a significant number of productive discussions with west African Governments, including the Foreign Secretary and me meeting the Nigerian President’s special envoy and my own visit to Ghana in July, where I met the President and the Ghanaian Foreign Minister.

[Lyn Brown]

I pay tribute to the success of the British contribution to the international effort to suppress piracy off the west coast of Somalia. What specific assistance will the UK provide to deal with the growing problems of piracy in west Africa?

[Mark Simmonds]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for raising these very important issues. There are clear differences between the piracy off the east coast of Africa and the west coast of Africa. I have offered to the relevant west African Governments our experiences and those of the international community, and we are helpful where we can be. Only yesterday, I discussed with the Cameroonian Foreign Minister the implementation of the agreement that was set out in Yaoundé between the 13 Heads of State from west and central Africa exactly to address the problems of maritime insecurity off the west African coast.

[Richard Ottaway (Croydon South) (Con)]

The Minister will be well aware that terrorist groups are roaming throughout north and west Africa, from Sinai in the east to Mali in the west. Throughout the region, this state of affairs is exacerbated by struggling economies, and it is causing instability. Does he agree that what is needed, very urgently, is a regional initiative?

[Mark Simmonds]

My hon. Friend is exactly right to highlight the regional nature of the particular challenges that are faced in west and northern Africa. The principal terrorist threat in west Africa is from the extremist group Boko Haram, which kidnapped French nationals in Cameroon in April. That is why we have put together a north and west Africa strategic framework to tackle the region-wide threats. It is also why the G8 focused on trying to provide a counter-terrorism strategy, which importantly included building security, the rule of law and capacity, and on tackling criminal trafficking as well as the terrorist threat.

[Mr John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

I am very pleased that the Minister recognises that piracy off the coast of west Africa is part of a wider range of threats, including, as has been mentioned, the infiltration of terrorism from the north and organised crime from the drugs trade. Will he expand on concrete proposals he has made to west African countries, but also, particularly, to our wider allies, as to what action can be taken to counteract these multiple threats to the stability of countries in the region?

[Mark Simmonds]

There are a number of key initiatives to support, through technical facilitation, the west African countries and to enable co-operation with our Navy, in its visits to the region, to train the necessary west African naval capacity to deal with these challenges. Ultimately, however, as we found in east Africa, the solution is on land, not on sea, so we are working with west African Governments to try to provide economic and developmental assistance to make sure that people have economic hope and the ability to provide for their families, rather than piracy off the west coast of Africa.

[Pat Glass (North West Durham) (Lab)]

15. What discussions he has had with the UN special envoy for the great lakes on the situation in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mark Simmonds)]

We are very concerned about the current situation in eastern DRC, in particular the impact on the civilian population in the region. I spoke to Mary Robinson about this most recently on 27 August, following an earlier bilateral meeting, and I made clear the UK’s full support for the UN and MONUSCO as they work to protect civilians against the M23 rebels.

[Pat Glass]

There were reports last week of fighting between the M23 rebels and UN peacekeepers. Will the Minister give us details of the steps the Government are taking, including with the UN, to put a stop to this fighting?

[Mark Simmonds]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right to raise her concerns about the fighting that took place in the eastern part of the DRC. We have been working with the international community, including the United Nations. I have spoken, and offered the United Kingdom’s full support, to Martin Kobler, the UN Secretary-General’s special representative who is in charge of MONUSCO, and to Mary Robinson. I have also spoken to the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to urge restraint, as I have to the Rwandan Foreign Minister. President Museveni of Uganda has called for talks in Kampala on 5 September, and I very much hope that that will be the beginning of the process so that everybody is focused on implementing the peace and security framework that was set out after the problems a few months ago.

[Mr Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)]

The humanitarian emergency in that part of Africa is grave and long-standing. What would we say to China, as it acquires interests and, gradually, the ability to project military power there, if it invoked international humanitarian law to intervene militarily and there was opposition from other members of the Security Council?

[Mark Simmonds]

I have seen no evidence that the Chinese propose to intervene militarily in the eastern DRC. The United Nations Security Council is unified in its determination to provide assistance to the DRC Government in providing security and stability in the eastern DRC. My hon. Friend is absolutely right that there is no long-term military solution. There need to be military, political and economic solutions to ensure sustainable economic development and growth for the benefit of the people who live in eastern DRC.

[Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) (Con)]

16. What plans he has to increase the role of national Parliaments in the EU.

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[Oliver Colvile (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Con)]

T6. Following Robert Mugabe’s re-election—or supposed re-election—as President of Zimbabwe, what discussion has my right hon. Friend, or other hon. Friends, had with the Southern African Development Community, and would he be willing to make a statement on potential sanctions?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mark Simmonds)]

I assure my hon. Friend and the House that the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and I have engaged closely with leaders of SADC countries, the African Union, the EU and the US in support of free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. In the light of the serious allegations of election irregularities, our message has been consistent: a peaceful election is not enough. I assure my hon. Friend that I will be visiting three SADC countries over the next week. On sanctions, I confirm that we will continue to work with EU partners to ensure an appropriate and robust EU response to the political and democratic situation in Zimbabwe. It is important that the EU shows leadership.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

T9. What conversations have the Government had with the Lebanese and Saudi Governments following the detention of Saudi diplomats in southern Beirut last week, and what conversations have they had with our allies in case the conflict in Syria spills out into Lebanon?