Category: Press Releases

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 9 February 2023.

Deputy Ambassador Deirdre Brown thanks the three OSCE Committee chairs for their proposals to focus on Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2023.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the Chairs of the three Committees for presenting to the Permanent Council today. Ambassadors, we support the approaches you have proposed. Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine strikes at the very core of the obligations we have all freely signed up to as members of this organisation. It has created a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe, traumatised a generation of children and created a global food and energy crisis. Russia’s war must continue to command our full attention.

Ambassador Stoian, we welcome your appointment and proposed work-plan, particularly your focus on the protection of critical infrastructure, the impact of cyber-attacks, organised crime, border security and management, and the role of and impact on women and children in the conflict cycle. We fully support your approach to assess the current security environment and maintain a flexible agenda to take into account the evolutions of Russia’s premeditated and barbaric actions against Ukraine.

Ambassador Raunig, we welcome your proposed work-plan and in particular the inclusion of sessions on environmental degradation, biodiversity, water management, connectivity, food security, corruption, and energy security. All these issues have been affected by Russia’s on-going aggression – and must be addressed in that context.

We recognise the importance of the adoption of the Permanent Council decision necessary to begin the Economic and Environmental Forum cycle and we urge all delegations to agree to the draft circulated by the Chairpersonship.

Ambassador Callan, we welcome your appointment and proposed work-plan, in particular your focus on civil society, which can serve to reinforce the strong relationship the Human Dimension Committee has built with human rights defenders across the OSCE region. The topics freedom of the media, democratic institutions and freedom of assembly are also welcome, and provide ample opportunities to explore the link between internal repression of citizens’ rights and external aggression. We look forward to the Chair-in-Office’s Supplementary Meetings this year complementing and reinforcing the work of the Human Dimension Committee. We note the importance of having a space to discuss violations and abuses of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, including those documented in the Moscow Mechanism reports in 2022, which show no signs of abating this year.

Across the board, we welcome all attempts to ensure the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women. A more diverse range of opinion will improve the content of any discussions.

Mr Chair, Russia chooses to continue its path of aggression and destruction. The response from the international community has been consistent: a call for an end to the aggression; and for peace. We will continue to work in the three Committees, with our Chair-in-Office, and with the OSCE Secretariat, institutions, and field missions – to uphold our fundamental principles and values. For Ukraine, and for all of us in this room.

Thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 9 February 2023.

The UK’s Permanent Representative to the WTO in Geneva, Ambassador Simon Manley, gave a statement on 8 February 2023 during Malaysia’s 8th WTO Trade Policy Review.

Chair, let me warmly welcome the delegation of Malaysia to Geneva here today, led by our friend, Datuk ISHAM ISHAK, Secretary General of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. It’s great to have you all with us today!

Let me also thank the government of Malaysia and indeed the WTO Secretariat for their Reports. And the Secretary General for his very thorough presentation of Malaysia’s macro-economic policy this morning.

Chair, may I echo your comments to our distinguished Discussant, and very good friend, Ambassador Acarsoy, and offer our condolences to him, and indeed to all our friends at the Turkish Mission, for this appalling humanitarian tragedy which is unrolling before our eyes in both Turkiye and Syria.

As he knows, British search and rescue experts arrived last night in southeast Turkiye and indeed the Union flag flew at half-mast at our Embassy and Consulates across Turkiye yesterday. As a multilateral community, of which we are a part, these tragedies do remind us of the need for us to come together. As the Malaysian national motto says, ‘unity is strength’.

So returning to the business of this review let me start by commending Malaysia’s strong and resilient economic growth, which the Secretary General set out this morning. And of course that growth has been enabled by its openness. I was glad to read in that the World Bank report rates Malaysia as one of the most open economies in the world – a secret of its success in many ways. Malaysia’s aspiration to become a high-income country, by the time of their next TPR in 2028, is already producing positive results under that ambitious Twelfth Malaysia Plan, based on those themes of resetting the economy, strengthening security, wellbeing and advancing sustainability.

As the Secretary General knows, Malaysia is the UK’s second largest trading partner in Southeast Asia – with total trade reaching almost £6bn in the first four quarters to Q3 of 2022 and British exports increasing by just under 18% in the last year. We are also really pleased to have established a UK-Malaysia Joint Committee on Bilateral Trade and Investment Cooperation back in 2020, to promote trade and investment between our two great nations, and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Indo-Pacific region.

That initiative was upgraded to a Ministerial-led Joint Economic Trade Committee just last November. We look forward to continuing to build economic cooperation between our countries under this Committee, as well as more broadly through our new dialogue partner status in ASEAN.

We are also pleased to stand as Malaysia’s ninth largest foreign investor, with a strong corporate footprint in Malaysia with over 200 British companies investing in a wide variety of sectors across the economy. Education is at the heart of our relationship. There are five UK university branch campuses in Malaysia, as well as tens of thousands of young Malaysians attending schools and university in the UK, and we stand ready to support Malaysia’s ambition to become a regional education hub. And let me just mention in that respect, the now very famous Syabira Yusoff, a young Malaysian who came to study in the UK for a PhD and who las year achieved great fame in our country for winning the ‘Great British Bake-Off’.

We are also delighted that Malaysia has invested so significantly into the UK, with inward investments in 2020 valued at £780 million, representing an increase of almost 230% from the year before.

And, of course, our flourishing bilateral ties also extend here to Geneva. We are grateful for Malaysia’s active participation and engagement in the Investment Facilitation for Development, MSME and E-commerce Joint Initiatives. Through these initiatives, we share a common commitment to delivering for global businesses and global consumers. In this context, let me join others in encouraging Malaysia to consider joining the initiative on Services Domestic Regulation, where businesses, particularly in the developing world, are set to benefit by up to $150bn globally per year.

More broadly, our governments are working together on critical modern issues such as climate and forced labour. Indeed, my UN Deputy Permanent Representative is in Kuala Lumpur this week discussing human rights issues, among others, with our Malaysian partners.

Net-zero planning and green energy are shared priority issues for the UK and Malaysia on green trade, as highlighted by the Secretary General’s comments this morning. Indeed we in the UK established our own net-zero and energy department just yesterday. We signed the UK-Malaysia Climate Partnership MoU in July 2022, supporting greater technical assistance and knowledge sharing, and we will continue to work with government departments and agencies at all levels in support of those shared climate goals.

On forced labour, we really welcome Malaysia’s ratification of the ILO’s Forced Labour Convention last year and remain committed to working together to deliver our shared goal of ending modern slavery and coercive labour practices. We continue to support Malaysia’s work to deliver its National Action Plan through exchange of expertise and engagement across government, civil society and business.

Also commendable is Malaysia’s engagement in Trade & Gender, an issue very dear to the heart of my Minister, as Minister for both Business and Trade and Equalities, with clear efforts being made in Malaysia’s 2022 budget for women-led MSMEs and a specific commitment in the Twelfth Malaysia Plan to ensure further opportunities for female entrepreneurs and access to decision-making roles.

But, of course, there is always more we can do to strengthen our bilateral relationship.

In our Advance Written Questions, the UK sought to understand more about Malaysia’s trade policies and practices regarding government procurement, government-linked companies and tendering provisions, sustainable manufacturing practices, and excise duties.

We particularly encourage Malaysia to continue opening its legal services sector, including business services, to competition and to investment and to view this, as we do, as a realisable economic benefit. The opening of legal services will, in our view, support Malaysian corporations that are seeking to globalise and require specialist legal advice in Malaysia, and should promote the development of Malaysia into a legal hub within ASEAN.

Chair, we are grateful to Malaysia for their written responses and look forward to continuing to work together to address these important issues. And we are grateful to the whole team from Kuala Lumpur for being here with us today, and we wish Malaysia a successful Trade Policy Review and continuing success in progressing their Twelfth Malaysia Plan, with the UK, I hope, as a close partner too.