Category: Press Releases

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 26 October 2022.

Statement by Ambassador James Kariuki at the Security Council session on the Great Lakes.

Thank you President, and I thank Special Envoy Xia for his briefing today, and welcome the participation of countries of the region in this meeting.

President, the United Kingdom remains deeply concerned by the security situation in the Great Lakes region, in particular the resurgence of violence by M23 in the last week. We call for immediate cessation of violence and the withdrawal of M23 from their current positions. All parties must respect national sovereignty and uphold the principle of territorial integrity.

We call upon countries in the region, with the support of the Special Envoy, to continue to work in close coordination with the Government of the DRC and MONUSCO to bring lasting peace to the country.

President, we have said many times that political and diplomatic efforts should have primacy over a military solution. Humanitarian considerations should also have equal priority. Military action alone will not bring peace to the Great Lakes. So we encourage the resumption of the Nairobi and Luanda processes. The UN, including through the offices of the Special Envoy, should actively support these efforts and ensure coordination with existing efforts, such as the DRC’s P-DDRCS process.

President, any military action in Eastern DRC requires careful planning, coordination with MONUSCO, adherence with international law and a clear exit plan. The EAC Force and DRC Armed Forces must substantively engage with MONUSCO on de-confliction of forces, to ensure, primarily, the protection of civilians. We trust Special Envoy Xia will support this coordination.

The United Kingdom remains concerned about the humanitarian situation in the Great Lakes region. The DRC is suffering from the world’s largest food security emergency, with 26 million people in crisis levels of food insecurity. Recent violence is adding to the 5.9 million people already displaced in the DRC. Access to those that need relief is severely limited. Coordination between military and humanitarian operations is vital and we call on all parties to facilitate humanitarian access.

In conclusion, President, we call upon countries in the region to intensify efforts to improve their regional cooperation, address shared security challenges via political and diplomatic means, improve humanitarian access, and bring an end to the violence. Thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 25 October 2022.

Statement by Fergus Eckersley, UK Political Coordinator at the UN, at the UN Security Council briefing on chemical weapons in Syria.

Thank you President, and thank you to the High Representative.

There may be one thing that I can agree with my Russian colleague on; that sadly, we heard today no significant new developments in the briefing from the UN. We again heard instead a long list of areas where the Syrian regime continues to refuse to provide adequate information to the OPCW or to complete basic actions in accordance with its international obligations.

But this does not mean we should simply turn a blind eye and give the Syrian regime a free pass.

Syria’s refusal to cooperate with the OPCW, to address the outstanding issues with its Chemical Weapons Convention declaration, is inexcusable.

As we have said many times, the 20 outstanding issues are not academic – they include the whereabouts of several hundred tonnes of chemical warfare agents, whose destruction still cannot be verified.

And the history is not in doubt, with at least 8 chemical weapon attacks already independently attributed to the Assad regime against its own people.

Syria and Russia have long used deceit and disinformation in an attempt to deflect attention from appalling war crimes committed by the Assad regime.

Despite all this two things are clear. First, Syria’s non-compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention poses a genuine and ongoing threat to international peace and security.

And second, there must be accountability for the Assad regime’s historic use of chemical weapons.

This Council must continue to address these issues despite Syrian and Russian efforts to obstruct progress.

We cannot send the signal that we tolerate the use of Chemical weapons, and we cannot allow impunity.

Thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 25 October 2022.

Statement by Ambassador James Kariuki at the Security Council briefing on the political and humanitarian situation in Syria.

Thank you President, and let me thank Special Envoy Pedersen and Ms Ghelani for their briefing today. I’d like to make three points.

First, the United Kingdom supports the efforts of Special Envoy Pedersen to progress the implementation of 2254 through the Step for Step initiative. We welcome the news of his recent discussions in New York, Damascus and elsewhere. But Russian and regime intransigence continues to preclude progress and we call for their participation in good faith. We urge them to de-politicise the Constitutional Committee. We are clear that the Committee should reconvene in Geneva, as agreed, and begin to focus fully on substance rather than process.

Second, the United Kingdom is appalled by the human rights situation in Syria. Tens of thousands of Syrians have been forcibly disappeared, detained and tortured since the beginning of the conflict. Including in the notorious Sednaya prison, where as civil society have told us repeatedly, detainees are tortured and killed on a daily basis.

We strongly condemn these violations. We call for the full implementation of Security Council resolution 2254, which includes release of the arbitrarily detained along with a nationwide ceasefire; unhindered aid access; conditions for safe voluntary and dignified refugee return and free and fair elections pursuant to a new constitution.

The UK is closely monitoring the escalation of hostilities in north west Syria. It is essential that all parties to the conflict respect the ceasefire.

Finally, President, as we’ve heard, the spreading cholera outbreak highlights the frankly horrifying humanitarian context, and the need for a sustained response by the humanitarian community. The United Nations is stepping up its cross-line delivery where possible.

But cross-border remains a vital lifeline for many in the north west. We look forward to this Council renewing the cross-border mandate in January, ensuring aid for millions of Syrians during winter months.

Thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 25 October 2022.

The UK’s Ambassador to the WTO and UN in Geneva, Simon Manley, commends the trade commitments made by Barbados and highlights the importance of UK-Barbados bilateral relations.

Chair, let me warmly welcome the Barbados delegation, led by the Minister of State the Honourable Sandra Husbands to their 4th Trade Policy Review. We are grateful to the Government of Barbados and to the WTO Secretariat for their Reports, and to our most distinguished Chair and Discussant, the Ambassador of Maldives, for kindly facilitating this Review with their insights.

Barbados’s Trade Policy Review (TPR) Report and its own policy statement describe a relatively small and open economy, vulnerable to exogenous shocks and facing economic challenges with a large current account deficit and public debt, but committed to an open trade policy as a key plank of its economic strategy. We commend that commitment to trade as a driver for sustainable growth. In our Advance Written Questions, the UK was keen to understand developments in areas including customs administration, tariffs, intellectual property, the harmonisation of standards, and the manufacturing sector. We thank Barbados for their helpful responses.

The dramatic effects of climate change, and damage wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, are recurrent features in TPRs at the moment. We are particularly cognisant of the disproportionate impact felt by Small Island Developing States and other small and vulnerable economies. Let me pay tribute to Barbados for its efforts to champion these perspectives at the WTO, as they have also done so effectively elsewhere, including in the Commonwealth and at COP26 in Glasgow.

Turning to Barbados’s trade profile, the UK agrees wholeheartedly with the Government’s own assessment that growth and development are predicated on an openness to the global community, in which free trade plays an integral part. We were pleased to note Barbados’s commitments in its policy statement to liberalised international trade and its aversion to trade barriers, despite the additional economic stresses caused by a global pandemic, the volcanic eruption, and significant climate events.

Additionally, prudent fiscal solutions implemented since 2018 (such as the BERT Plan) have demonstrated the effectiveness of responses by the Barbadian Government. The fall in Barbados’s current account deficit from over 9% of GDP in 2014 to under 3% in 2019 illustrates the impressive effectiveness of Barbados’ fiscal consolidation path response.

We also note the concerted strategic efforts made by Barbados to increase linkages with African continental markets and the Middle East. These demonstrate Barbados’s commitment to diversifying its economy and to targeting opportunities for export-driven growth.

Chair, the threat of climate change to livelihoods and prosperity throughout the world – (which we were discussing here just yesterday in our agriculture retreat) – obliges us all to put the environment at the heart of our economic policies. So we commend Barbados’s National Energy Policy target to reach 100% renewable energy and carbon neutrality by 2030. We appreciated the clarifications within the Secretariat Report regarding both demand and supply-side solutions. The outlined two-pronged attack – of increasing the adoption of energy efficient technologies and promoting energy conservation, and diversifying sources of energy, respectively – suggests a reassuringly holistic strategy.

Let me pay tribute to the leadership role that Barbados plays, not only in this organisation, but across multilateral Geneva. In particular, let me reiterate our pleasure that Barbados ratified the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) back in January 2018 and encourage Barbados’s ongoing progress in implementing the TFA. We note, as Barbados and others have acknowledged, that Barbados has various outstanding WTO notifications. We welcome the assurance that the Minister gave this morning. We are sympathetic and receptive to Members’ individual pressures and we encourage Barbados and other Members in similar circumstances to consult with the WTO Secretariat and to utilise the resources already available. Notifications are a vital WTO transparency component, and their value is highly regarded both across the Membership and outside this organization. We want to make these tools workable and useful for delegations like Barbados, and effective for the Membership as a whole.

Finally, let me underline the healthy state of the long-standing and deep-rooted bilateral relationship between our two countries. At the economic heart of that modern relationship lies the UK-CARIFORUM Economic Partnership Agreement, which came into force in January 2021, ensuring continuity from the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement. The first meeting of that agreement’s Trade & Development Committee took place in October last year. The meeting was an opportunity for parties to provide updates on relevant trade policy developments in the United Kingdom and in the Caribbean region, and to reaffirm their desire for a prompt ratification of the EPA by all parties.

The United Kingdom and CARIFORUM States discussed matters of joint interest including tariff liberalisation, trade in Goods & Services, and Geographical Indications. The parties noted with satisfaction that the EPA had secured continuity of a trading relationship worth almost three billion pounds in 2020 and expressed their desire to develop further sustainable and inclusive trade underpinned by the EPA.

And so, to conclude, Chair, we wish Barbados well in building on its trade-centred growth and development path as it recovers from the pandemic and confronts the challenges of climate change, and we thank our colleagues in Barbados for their engagement in this important transparency exercise. Let this be a successful and fruitful 4th Trade Policy Review.