Category: Press Releases

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 27 March 2025.

Ambassador Holland welcomes the work of the OSCE Mission over the last 12 months, and condemns recent attempts by Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik to undermine regional stability.

Firstly, I would like to welcome back Ambassador Aggeler to the Permanent Council. Thanks once again to you and your team for your work over the past 12 months, and for this comprehensive report. The United Kingdom highly appreciates the work and added value of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mr Chair, the United Kingdom strongly supports a stable, prosperous and inclusive Bosnia and Herzegovina, making progress on its Euro-Atlantic path. We therefore condemn Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik’s illegal and dangerous recent attacks on the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dodik and the Republika Srpska National Assembly’s attempts to break up the state – including through a proposal for a new secessionist constitution – will only harm the citizens he claims to protect. As a signatory to the Dayton Peace Agreement, the UK rejects any such attempts to undermine regional stability and prosperity.

In this difficult context, we welcome the OSCE Mission’s continuous efforts and engagement on reconciliation, peace- and trust-building. We particularly support the Mission’s work on strengthening inter-ethnic relations, and in connecting neighbouring communities across political and administrative divides. A more inclusive and cohesive society is essential to achieving a positive future for the whole of BiH. We highly value the insight and information provided by the nine Field Offices across the country towards this.

The UK welcomes that local elections held in Bosnia and Herzegovina in October proceeded smoothly and were found by ODIHR and other partners to be competitive and managed efficiently. However, we note concerns over the perceived lack of genuine public engagement. We encourage authorities in BiH to fully align BiH’s Election Law with international standards, following ODIHR recommendations, and to ensure that funding for the Central Election Committee’s work is agreed in good time for the 2026 general elections. Changes to the Election Law will rebuild voters’ trust in the democratic process and ensure that the results reflect their will. The UK is pleased to have supported work through the OSCE Mission to improve the integrity of electoral processes.

The UK also fully supports the work of the Mission towards safeguarding fundamental freedoms and shares the Mission’s concerns at the shrinking space for civil society and media observed over the last 12 months. We encourage BiH to focus on its reform agenda and positive legislative steps required as part of the EU accession pathway.

Mr Chair, this remains a critical and dangerous time for European security. It is vital that the international community takes a collective approach to supporting the development of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Further economic, social and political progress must build on the many years of reforms.

The UK joins international partners in urging all actors to fully adhere to the Dayton Peace Agreement and respect the state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We reaffirm our unequivocal commitment to the territorial integrity of BiH and support for a single, sovereign state comprising two entities, in which all its peoples and citizens are equal. As we approach the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide and of the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the UK is committed to supporting BiH in its efforts to build a secure, stable, inclusive society, and heal the fractures caused by conflict.

Ambassador Aggeler – dear Brian – on a personal level, I also wanted to thank you for your leadership of the Mission over the last three years, and wish you all the best with your future endeavours.

Thank you, Mr Chair.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 27 March 2025.

Baroness Chapman gave a speech at the launch of a new Global Compact on Nutrition Integration on the eve of the Nutrition for Growth Summit in Paris.

Welcome everyone. Thank you to our co-hosts – the Government of Nigeria, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Bank, and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and thank you to the Government of France for bringing us together.

It is great to see such a diverse group of people gathered here – from Gavi and the Green Climate Fund, to private sector investors, philanthropy, and civil society networks, to countries deeply affected by malnutrition, including members of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement.

I know that for some of you this is your life’s work. And as the UK’s Minister for International Development, and for Latin America and Caribbean, it is a pleasure to welcome you all on the eve of the fourth Nutrition for Growth Summit, and to share a few reflections before we hear from you.

Thanks in no small part to many of you – the work we have done together over many decades has shown that we can make a difference. Lives changed and lives saved.

This agenda can serve as an example of how coming together, being more than the sum of our parts, can help us maximise our impact.

Now, before going into more detail about our collective work on nutrition, I want to address something head on. I know many of you will have seen our announcement about our ODA budget in recent weeks –  as the UK responds to the world as it is now – less stable, more insecure.

It was a decision we neither relish, nor take lightly. But I hope my presence here, the work of our dedicated experts, and our continued efforts on this important agenda, demonstrates the UK will never turn its back on the world – or on international development. Far from it.

How we work has to change, but I promise, what we all care about is not. The task for all of us now is to make sure we secure the reforms we need to meet the challenges and opportunities of our times.

That includes making the case for development anew. And thinking afresh about the kind of genuine, respectful, modern partnerships we pursue, and the commitment, energy and expertise we bring to forums like this – not just how much public money we have to spend.

And as we work through the difficult choices before us now, my focus is on making sure this new reality gives even greater impetus to modernising the UK’s approach to international development. That is already underway. And it is how we maximise the impact of every pound of public money we are able to put in – and our collective impact.

So let me talk about our impact.

Over a decade after the world came together in the UK for the first of these important summits, the UK has helped to improve the nutrition of over 50 million women and children – from Nigeria, to Pakistan, Bangladesh, and beyond.

That spans everything from getting micronutrient supplements, specialist support, and therapeutic foods to treat malnutrition in women and children, to helping farmers grow more nutritious foods like vegetables and legumes, to improve the diets of their families and communities.

I talked a moment ago about the importance of working in partnership – we need to learn from our successes. Partnerships like the Child Nutrition Fund. Alongside UNICEF, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and the Gates Foundation, we are aiming to prevent, detect, and treat malnutrition for 70 million women and 230 million children in 23 countries, from Afghanistan, to DRC, Malawi, Madagascar, Somalia, and South Sudan.

At the end of last year, a new partnership with the World Food Programme, World Health Organisation, and UNICEF got underway – focused on preventing the most horrible and deadliest form of malnutrition, child wasting.

It’s a dreadful and shameful phrase to even say – and we must keep our minds on that, as we stand here together in these wonderful surroundings, to reaffirm all our commitments and initiatives.

Commitments like those we made at the last summit in Tokyo 4 years ago, on integrating nutrition across everything we do, from climate to health – such as developing nutritious crops that help us address a lack of key nutrients. So that the 2 billion people who don’t get the nutrition they need can have a healthier life.

It means working with Gavi, the Government of Ethiopia, and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation to reach vulnerable mothers and children with life-saving immunisation and nutrition.

And, when it comes to nutrition, we all know what is at stake in every country in the world. Combating malnutrition is vital for a healthy population and healthy economies – malnutrition translates into a loss of 10% of GDP for countries most affected. It’s a good investment – every pound, euro or dollar we invest pays for itself 23 times over.

We know how to make our work even more effective. Invest in science. Go for solutions supported by the evidence. Put nutrition at the heart of everything we do – from health, to water, hygiene, and sanitation, food systems, social protection, and our wider resilience.

So, this evening, it’s fantastic we have all come together to launch the Global Compact on Nutrition Integration.

Tomorrow, we convene a new coalition of signatories. And I am looking forward to hearing from some of you this evening, about your commitment to this vital cause.

As we learn from each other, challenge each other, push each other to do more, and keep going – not just at summits like this where we all get together. That is how we maximise the impact we can achieve.

So, thank you all once again for being here.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 27 March 2025.

Ambassador Holland commends Ukraine’s agreement to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and urges Russia to show that it is serious about peace by agreeing to one without further delay.

Thank you, Mister Chair.  We all want to see an end to the fighting and an enduring peace in Ukraine.  We thank the United States for their efforts to deliver this, including during talks this week in Riyadh.

Under President Zelenskyy’s leadership, Ukraine has shown that it is the party of peace.  They have proposed a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire.  The only condition that Ukraine attached to this was that Russia should agree to it too.  To date, Russia has not done so.  We hope that President Putin will agree to this without further delay.

The ball remains in Russia’s court to demonstrate that the words we have heard about Russia wanting peace are sincere.

It can do so by removing conditions designed to hamper and delay US-led efforts to end the fighting.  It can do so by ceasing the attacks which continue to kill and injure innocent civilians at a pace which has not changed despite the altered context.  And it can do so by showing that it is able to honour, in good faith, past agreements it has signed, starting with the Geneva Conventions, which include rules on the targeting of healthcare and minimising civilian casualties.  The Russian State has shown little regard for these laws since it launched its full-scale invasion, an attitude that continues to this day.

We will not lose sight of the fact that this remains an illegal and unprovoked war against an independent, sovereign nation. It is a violation of the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act.  And the longer it takes President Putin to agree to end the fighting, the more innocent lives will be lost.

Mister Chair, I would also like to say a few words about the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine.  As you know, the SMM was in place between 2014 and 2022.  The men and women of the SMM performed their functions with integrity and professionalism.  They did so despite a risk to their safety, a risk underlined by the tragic deaths of two of its members and the arbitrary arrest and continued detention by Russia of three of its staff: Vadym Golda, Maxim Petrov and Dmytro Shabanov.

The SMM’s task – to provide independent and objective reporting on the security situation in Ukraine – was made impossible by Russia and its proxies restricting its movements and mandate. Blaming the OSCE for these flaws is disinformation and distraction. This organisation and its staff deserve better.  Thank you, Mister Chair.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 24 March 2025.

2025 Rohingya Joint Response Plan: UK statement delivered by the UK’s Human Rights Ambassador, Eleanor Sanders.

The United Kingdom would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Bangladesh for its generous hospitality in hosting so many Rohingya refugees since 2017.

We also wish to express our deep appreciation to all the humanitarian partners, their staff and the volunteers on the ground, who have provided vital assistance in this ongoing crisis.

The UK remains steadfast in our commitment to supporting the Rohingya people while they remain in Bangladesh. Since 2017, we have provided £405 million for the Rohingya and host communities in Bangladesh. We have also contributed £105 million to the response in Rakhine, with £52 million of this supporting Rohingya and other Muslim minorities.

Through our role as penholder at the Security Council, the UK convened six meetings on Myanmar in 2024, and one earlier this year, to ensure continued attention on the crisis.

In November, our Minister for the Asia Pacific visited Bangladesh, where she reiterated the UK’s unwavering support for Bangladesh and the Rohingya people.

So we are also pleased to welcome this year’s Joint Response Plan, aimed at assisting both the Rohingya refugees and the vulnerable host community members living in Bangladesh. We continue to see it as important that we target our support to ensure protection of the most vulnerable.

We recognise the immense challenges that Bangladesh faces in hosting such a large refugee population, including the pressures on security and infrastructure in the camps. The UK is committed to:

• Continuing our partnership with Bangladesh and our international partners to find sustainable solutions,
• Working with Bangladesh to offer the Rohingya refugees greater self-reliance,
• Improving the safety and security of the camps,
• Coordinating with international partners to achieve the maximum impact with the resources available.

As this crisis continues to evolve, we will continue to do everything we can to support those in need, while actively working towards a safe, dignified, and sustainable future for the Rohingya people.

Thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 27 March 2025.

Deputy Ambassador Deirdre Brown congratulates Armenia and Azerbaijan on the conclusion of negotiations on a peace agreement and urges both sides to sign it as soon as possible.

Thank you, Mr Chair.  And thank you also, Your Excellency, Deputy Foreign Minister, for your update this afternoon.

The United Kingdom warmly congratulates Armenia and Azerbaijan on the conclusion of their negotiations on a peace agreement.  This is a historic moment, and we urge both sides to sign the agreement as soon as possible.  Finalisation of this peace treaty is the best route to achieving lasting peace and to delivering security and stability in the South Caucasus as a whole.  It will open the way to increased trade and prosperity, not only for Armenia and Azerbaijan, but their neighbours also.

We urge both sides to refrain from rhetoric that undermines the prospects for peace.  A return to conflict would be a tragedy and set back progress on peace in the region by years.

The United Kingdom continues to support all efforts, alongside our international partners, to ensure a durable and lasting peace in the South Caucasus.

Thank you, Mr Chair.