Category: Press Releases

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 4 May 2023.

Acting Ambassador Brown says that if Russia wanted peace, it would stop bombing Ukraine’s civilian population, demonstrate commitment to the Black Sea Grain Initiative and cease its campaign of disinformation.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 4 May 2023.

The UK delivered a statement during The Bahamas’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 3 May 2023.

Statement by Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council meeting on peacebuilding and sustaining peace.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 3 May 2023.

Statement by UK Chief Scientific Adviser Charlotte Watts at the UN Scientific, Technology and Innovation Forum.

Co-chairs, Excellencies, I am delighted to speak on behalf of the United Kingdom, as co-Chair of this, the 8th Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals.

Our meeting today comes at a critical moment on our path to 2030. We know we are off-track with progress towards the SDGs, and we urgently need to accelerate progress.

I am speaking to you now, as a senior scientist in the UK Government, whose job is to lead UK development investments in generating new innovations and evidence to tackle major challenges and make progress on the SDGs.

Many of the major steps forward in development – including to tackle poverty and increase life expectancy – have been driven by advances in technology and the use of rigorous evidence on what does and doesn’t work. However, when I think back to my first engagements with the UN, as a university professor, I remember just how difficult it was, as a technical expert, to be in the room. Despite being one of the leading experts on violence against women and girls as part of an international network of researchers, we were not invited to be part of high-level official discussions at the UN as we weren’t representing a UN Member State or accredited NGO. Ultimately, some of us did attend, but only by reaching out to our Missions for help.

As we convene this 8th STI Forum and take stock of the evidence in the SDG Review, it is really encouraging to me to see just how far we have come in bringing academic and innovation community into the conversation. But we need to continue with that progress because it is critically important that data and evidence are at the heart of UN deliberations.

Moving on now to how we can build back better from COVID-19, there is much to learn. During the pandemic, as a Chief Scientific Adviser for the UK Government, I sat on the Government’s independent Scientific Advisory Committee and saw, first-hand, how we could operate in a completely different way. In the early days of the outbreak, researchers were sequencing the genome of the virus and sharing the data; within weeks, research into the virus was being collated and made widely accessible free of charge around the world, enabling scientists to understand what we were up against. Within a month, researchers at the University of Oxford and elsewhere were adapting and accelerating vaccine platform development. Scientists around the world, like me, who were advising governments were in regular conversations –– sharing lessons, evidence and insight.

The partnerships that we forged, in a time of global crisis – government-to-government, public-private, north-south – were diverse and innovative. We sustained the necessary scientific rigour but reduced unnecessary bureaucracy in our decision-making.

Public engagement with science also shifted rapidly: in many countries, scientists were on national TV daily and became household names. Data and evidence loomed large in the public consciousness, with armchair epidemiologists emerging all over the world.

Of course, we also encountered significant challenges, which we must learn from and continue to tackle. Foremost among these was the difficulty of enabling timely and equitable global access to vaccines, as the Honourable Minister has mentioned. We were over-reliant on the centralised production of life-saving technologies. This starkly demonstrated the need for investment in regional vaccine manufacturing capability, especially in Africa. We also faced challenges of misinformation and trust in science and evidence.

As we approach the mid-way point towards the SDGs, we now need to apply this same urgency and resolve to addressing the interlinked and increasing crises the world faces, including to tackle climate change and make more rapid progress on achieving the SDGs.

The good news is that we are witnessing nothing short of a revolution in science, technology and innovation. Several technologies are coming of age and inspiring an explosion of innovation – from artificial intelligence to engineering biology – generating high-impact applications across all SDGs. The exponential development and adoption of these technologies will transform our world. But we know that this transformation will not automatically be equitable or deliver positive impact at scale.

There is the risk that countries compete over access to resources, talent, investment and technologies and that the benefits of advancements are not accessible to all. As a scientist, I want to stress the importance of resisting the temptation to be closed. Scientists and researchers, from all around the world know that scientific and technological innovations progress most quickly, and have greatest impact, through collaboration: where researchers trust each other, can collaborate easily, and when their work is accessible and shared around the world.

That is why the UK is delighted to partner with South Africa as co-Chair of this important Forum. This is an important opportunity to come together, not only to review progress in science and innovation but also to take the necessary actions to ensure the benefits of innovation can be felt by all.

I look forward to the discussions ahead and hope that, as the world grapples with complex interlinked crises, we can mobilise to accelerate progress to achieving the SDGs, with a commitment to working in partnership. I urge you all to leave this conference with the resolve to work together to ensure that the benefits of scientific and technological breakthroughs, and our innovations, are broadly distributed, widely felt, and achieve maximum impact, in support of the delivery of the bold SDG agenda for 2030.

Thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 3 May 2023.

The UK’s Permanent Representative to the WTO, Ambassador Simon Manley, gave a statement during OECS’s fourth WTO Trade Policy Review (TPR).

1. Chair, may I warmly welcome the impressive OECS delegation, led by Minister, the Honourable Chet Greene, to its 4th Trade Policy Review. We are grateful to the OECS Members and the WTO Secretariat for their Reports, and to our distinguished Discussant, Ambassador Nadia Theodore, for her insightful, moving and yes spicy comments. Her father should indeed be proud.
2. The countries of the OECS are of course nations with whom we have long and enduring ties, most members of the Commonwealth, some even sharing the same head of state, to be crowned this very week, and many of whose people have so enriched the society, economy and culture of the UK – and for that, I thank them. We were delighted that our Foreign Office Minister David Rutley was able to visit the OECS Secretariat in beautiful St Lucia in March and we look forward to the UK-Caribbean Forum with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in June.
3. Let me also thank the Governments of the OECS countries for ratifying the CARIFORUM – UK Economic Partnership Agreement. We are grateful for their collaboration in the implementation of that EPA and we look forward to continuing work with the CARIFORUM States to make the EPA a meaningful, living agreement, an Agreement that creates opportunities for both Caribbean and UK businesses.
4. Chair, we must stay alive to the individual challenges Members of this organisation face. As such, let me highlight the unjust environmental disparities faced by OECS Members, about which the Minister spoke so eloquently this morning. We must seek to champion trade and climate at the WTO, but also make it central to our own policies.
5. Following the destruction caused across the north-eastern Caribbean, by Hurricane Maria back in 2017, to which the Minister also referred, I would also like to show my support and wish Dominica luck in becoming the first ‘climate resilient’ nation.
6. The UK also look forward to seeing the benefits of the regional Agricultural policy introduced over the review period, which will, we hope, reduce rural poverty and build resilience against climate change.
7. Multilaterally, the UK has been a strong advocate of SIDS, combining our own expertise, convening power and multilateral influence to seek action on the challenges that SIDS face. This was, I hope, demonstrated throughout our COP presidency, where we sought to give a voice to the SIDS whose experience on the front line of climate change helped galvanise the world into action in Glasgow.
8. In December 2022, the UK launched the Principles for Improved Aid Impact in SIDS at the Effective Development Cooperation Summit in Geneva, alongside Canada and the Alliance of Small Island Sates (AOSIS). We very much look forward to working with the international community to drive action on SIDS climate and economic resilience ahead of the pivotal UN SIDS Summit.
9. I am also keen to highlight the important and influential voice of the OECS within the Commonwealth Small States Office, an organisation the UK is very proud to support.
10. Let me also address certain areas of market access with OECS Members, where the UK sees room for progress. The UK is keen to reduce barriers to trade where we can and are pleased to see that the Chief Veterinary Officers in Dominica and St. Lucia have agreed to conduct a Risk Assessment to the UK to remove the ban on bovine and other meats. Although the barrier currently stands as high priority, I am encouraged by the now swift movement towards a resolution. I hope that soon our succulent British beef and lamb will be used once again in Dominican households and restaurants. The UK believes that sharing best practice and recent data will allow us to progress this more effectively.
11. Here in Geneva, we of course recognise the capacity constraints the OECS team faces. That being said, we would encourage greater WTO notifications, especially around agriculture and SPS. Making use of technical assistance and capacity building where necessary.
12. Nevertheless, despite having a very small team in Geneva, I would like to praise the OECS for its proactive and pragmatic multilateral presence. Few would disagree that the OECS delegation punches well above its weight, or even its height. And let me in that respect congratulate my notably tall friend, Ambassador Murdoch.
13. To focus on some of the multilateral successes, let me first congratulate OECS nations on ratification of the Trade Facilitation Agreement over the review period.
14. Let me also highlight the OECS’s positive engagement with dispute settlement reform, the IFD and e-commerce work programmes, as well as fisheries negotiations. All of which have demonstrated the constructive cooperation the OECS brings to this organisation.
15. Last but far from least, we welcome the OECS’s support for the Joint Declaration on Women’s Economic Empowerment adopted at MC11 and the domestic efforts its members have outlined in this trade policy review to promote women’s economic empowerment. Madam Chair, as you know better than anyone, after your distinguished spell as one of the coordinators of the working group on gender, we are all aware of the importance of integrating women and women-led businesses into global markets and the role that such integration can play in unlocking fresh opportunities for countries to develop.

16. Chair, to conclude, we are grateful to our OECS friends for engaging in this important transparency exercise and wish them a most successful 4th Review, just as look forward to growing the trading and political relationship between our nations to which we are so committed.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 3 May 2023.

UK military advisor, Ian Stubbs, says thousands of ordinary Russians are being sent to their deaths whilst Putin tries to insulate the Russian elite from the horrors of his appalling war of choice.