Tag: David Lammy

The speech made by David Lammy, the Deputy Prime Minister, in New York on 24 September 2025.

There is an urgency to this debate. 

It was two years ago that the United Kingdom first brought artificial intelligence to this Council.

And since that time, its capabilities have grown exponentially. 

This is a lightning strike of change.  

Every one of us, diplomat, peacebuilder, terrorist, now carries superhuman expertise in our smartphones, better at maths, better at translation, better at diagnosis, than almost any human expert.  

And now, superintelligence is on the horizon, able to operate, coordinate, and act on our behalf. 

We are staring at a technological frontier of astounding promise and power.  

No aspect of life, war, or peace will escape.  

Deep AI analysis of situational data holds this promise for peacekeeping: 

Ultra-accurate real-time logistics. 

Ultra-accurate real-time sentiment analysis. 

Ultra-early warning systems.

But there are also these challenges for armed conflict:  

Ultra novel chemical and biological weapons, ultra accessible to malign actors.

And ultra rampant distortion and disinformation. 

 And, of course, this is what is at stake for our shared security:

The risk of miscalculation.

The risk of unintended escalation. 

And the arrival of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots stirring conflict.

 The risk of deeper instability is immense.

And this is why I so welcome the Secretary-General’s report on military AI. 

This is an opportunity for collective understanding.

 For us to build new safeguards and guardrails.

And reaffirm international law as the bedrock of responsible use. 

We all know that artificial intelligence use is growing, of course, exponentially, offering us both extraordinary promise and intense challenges.

 Nowhere is this clearer than in climate.  

On current trends, artificial intelligence could add the equivalent of a new Japan to world electricity consumption.  

Yet, it also promises to utterly transform efficiency and power our green transitions, fine-tuning electrical production to the minute to meet demand and eliminating astonishing levels of waste. 

This is the power of AI. 

We are crossing humanity’s most profound technological frontier.  

Our lives, our world, our politics are about to be flooded with super-powerful AI.  

There is only one way forward. 

Resilience. 

Learning how to use these tools and embedding them safely in society.

This is the United Kingdom’s mission.

Through our AI Security Institute, with more dedicated researchers than anywhere else in the world, and through the International AI Safety Report, with its secretariat based in the UK.

Under the chairmanship of Yoshua Bengio, one of our briefers today.

The United Kingdom is committed to using AI responsibly.

Safely, legally, and ethically.

And together, here at the United Nations, we must ensure AI strengthens peace and security.

I believe that it can.

And if we act together, we can get there.

The statement made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, in the House of Commons on 1 September 2025.

With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I shall make a statement on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Iran.

In Gaza, the situation on the ground is unimaginably bleak. Horrifying images and accounts will be seared into the minds of colleagues across this House. They are almost impossible to put into words, but we can and must be precise with our language, because on 22 August the United Nations-backed IPC mechanism confirmed what we are witnessing: famine—famine in Gaza city; famine in its surrounding neighbourhoods now spreading across the wider territory; famine which, if unchecked, will spiral into widespread starvation.

This was foreseen: it is the terrible conclusion of the obstacles we have warned about for over six months. Since 1 July, over 300 people have died from malnutrition, including 119 children. More than 132,000 children under the age of five are at risk of dying from hunger by June next year. This is not a natural disaster; it is a man-made famine in the 21st century, and I am outraged by the Israeli Government’s refusal to allow in sufficient aid. We need a massive humanitarian response to prevent more deaths, crucial non-governmental organisations, humanitarians and health workers to be allowed to operate, and stockpiles of aid on Gaza’s borders to be released. In the past three months, more than 2,000 Gazans have been killed trying to feed their families, and Hamas themselves are exploiting the chaos and deliberately starving Israeli hostages for abhorrent political purposes.

I know that these words of condemnation, echoed across legislatures all over the world, are not enough, but be in no doubt: we have acted as a country where we can. We restored funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. We suspended arms exports that could be used in Gaza. We signed a landmark agreement with the Palestinian Authority. We stood up for the independence of international courts. We have delivered three sanctions packages on violent settlers and far-right Israeli Ministers for incitement. We have suspended trade negotiations with the Israeli Government. We are at the forefront of the international community’s work to plan for a stable, post-conflict peace. We have now provided more than £250 million in development assistance over the past two years.

Today, we are going further. I can announce an additional £15 million of aid and medical care for Gaza and the region. We continue to work alongside regional partners, including Egypt and Jordan, to enable the United Nations and non-governmental organisations to ensure that aid reaches those most in need. Brave medics in Gaza tell us that essential medicines are running out and they cannot operate safely. That is why we are funding UK-Med, whose field hospitals have treated more than 600,000 Gazans. It is also why we are funding the World Health Organisation in Egypt to treat thousands of evacuated Gazan people.

Meanwhile, as my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary said earlier, we are working with the World Health Organisation to get critically ill and injured children into the UK, where they will receive specialist NHS treatment. The first patients are expected to arrive in the UK in the coming weeks. Extracting people from a war zone is, of course, complex and dangerous, and it relies entirely on Israeli permissions. I am pressing the Israeli Government for that to happen as quickly as possible. We are also supporting brilliant students granted Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Chevening scholarships and other scholarships to escape Gaza, so that they can take up their places for the coming academic year.

I recognise that those things only touch the edges of this catastrophe. We all know that there is only one way out: an immediate ceasefire that would see the unconditional release by Hamas of all hostages and a transformation in the delivery of aid. We know it, our US and European allies know it, and our Gulf partners know it, too. I am working night and day with them to deliver a ceasefire and a wider political process to deliver long-term peace. To make a ceasefire last, we need a monitoring mechanism, the disarmament of Hamas and a new governance framework for Gaza. That is the focus of our intense diplomacy in the region.

In contrast, further military operations in Gaza City will only prolong and deepen the crisis. Together with our partners, we demand an immediate halt to the operation. Each week brings new horrors. Last week’s double strike on Nasser hospital—one of Gaza’s last remaining major health facilities—killed 20 people, including five journalists. I remind Israel once again that international law requires the protection of healthcare workers, journalists and civilians. These actions will not end the war, and they will not bring the hostages home, let alone make them safer, as hostage families have recognised. Such actions will sow despair and anger across the region for generations.

In the west bank, the Israeli Government are tightening their stranglehold on the Palestinian economy and continue to approve illegal settlement construction, including just recently in the E1 area east of Jerusalem. That would erect a physical barrier to the contiguous Palestinian state, and it must not happen.

In July, I described before the UN General Assembly our intention to recognise the state of Palestine later this month, unless the Israeli Government take substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza and commit to a long-term sustainable peace. That commitment responds to the current crisis, but stems from our historic responsibility to the region’s security, reaching back over a century to the Balfour declaration. As I said last month in New York, I am deeply proud that it was a British Foreign Secretary who helped establish a homeland for the Jewish people, but the same declaration promised that

“nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights”

of the Palestinian people. Those rights are more under threat than at any point in the past century.

To those who say recognition rewards Hamas or threatens Israeli security, it does neither. Recognition is rooted in the principle of a two-state solution, which Hamas rejects. We have been clear that any Palestinian state should be demilitarised. Indeed, President Abbas has confirmed that in writing. We see no contradiction between the two-state solution and our deep commitment to Israeli security, because security comes from stable borders, not indefinite occupation.

Before I finish, I would also like to update the House on Iran. On 28 August, the UK, along with France and Germany, triggered the snapback mechanism under UN Security Council resolution 2231. That means that if no new agreement is reached within 30 days, the sanctions that were lifted under the Iran nuclear deal—the joint comprehensive plan of action—will come back into force. Those wide-ranging sanctions include a full arms embargo and restrictions on Iran’s nuclear, missile and drone programme. It was not a decision we took lightly. For years, we have worked with international partners to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The 2015 deal was meant to do just that, but Iran has repeatedly undermined the agreement. Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is now 40 times over the limit set by the JCPOA. Despite that clear escalation, we have made every effort over years of negotiations to bring Iran back to compliance. Those efforts have continued in recent months. I have urged Foreign Minister Araghchi to de-escalate and choose diplomacy.

In July, we offered Iran more time if it agreed to return to negotiations with the US and restore full access to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Last month, I warned Iran that time was short and we would have little choice but to trigger snapback. I regret to inform the House that Iran has not complied with its legal obligations, nor chosen the path of diplomacy, so we have had no choice but to act. I have long been clear that I will not allow snapback to expire without a durable and comprehensive deal. It would be unacceptable to allow this issue to fall off the UN Security Council agenda, despite the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear programme. Snapback is not the end of diplomacy, as Secretary Rubio has also recently underlined. Iran can still meet our conditions. It can restore full IAEA access and address our concerns about its stockpile and enrichment, and it can return to negotiations. Alongside our partners, I will continue to urge Iran to choose that path.

In the worst of times, this Government will continue to take all the steps that we can to alleviate suffering, to help bring regional conflict to an end and to create the conditions for long-term peace and security. We will not rest until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, the hostages are returned, and a flood of aid reaches those in desperate need. Despite the obstacles before us, we will work with partners to preserve the two-state solution. I commend this statement to the House.

The statement made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, on 13 August 2025.

Shocking reports are emerging of the latest assault by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in and around El Fasher, North Darfur. In Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced persons (IDP), attacks earlier this week killed at least 40 defenceless civilians who had already fled violence in El Fasher.

As fighting intensifies, exit routes from El Fasher remain blocked, trapping hundreds of thousands who now face famine, widespread reports of atrocities, and the rapid spread of disease, including cholera. Those who managed to flee to camps like Abu Shouk were already cut off from aid — and are now under attack.

This is not an isolated incident. It is part of a pattern of deliberate violence and brutality against civilians. The warring parties have a responsibility to end this needless suffering. They must urgently comply with their clear obligations under international humanitarian law and the commitments made in Jeddah: protect civilians and allow and facilitate unimpeded humanitarian access.

Last month, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor confirmed that there are reasonable grounds to believe war crimes and crimes against humanity have been – and continue to be – committed in Darfur. Deliberate attacks on civilians are a clear violation of international law. The perpetrators must be held accountable.

Today, together with our African partners & Guyana, we led a UN Security Council statement calling for immediate humanitarian access & respect for international law. The UK will continue to use all tools at our disposal to get aid to those who need it the most.

I urge the RSF, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and allied armed groups to agree to the UN Secretary-General’s call for a humanitarian pause in and around El Fasher and urgently put in place the conditions that will allow immediate access. Only this will allow the delivery of food, water, medicine, and other life-saving supplies to those facing starvation.

In line with UN Security Council Resolution 2736, the RSF must end its siege of El Fasher and cease attacks on civilians, and the SAF and allied Joint Forces must also allow and facilitate a rapid and unimpeded passage for humanitarian workers and civilians, so that aid can reach those most in need.

The speech made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, in Locarno, Switzerland on 11 August 2025.

It’s a real pleasure to be here in Locarno – a place of immense beauty and profound historical significance. Thank you so much to my good friend Minister Councillor Cassis. And I want to thank Professor Frank for his reflections on the Treaties — signed during a remarkable period in history.

It was perhaps when the world was experiencing what the great historian Adam Tooze called a deluge of modernity. The 1920s brought the first transatlantic phone call, the earliest films with sound, the rise of radio and the dawn of commercial flights. These technologies reshaped daily life and transformed diplomacy.

Governments could communicate faster, coordinate more closely and respond swiftly to global events — vital in a decade marked by profound challenges with the Great Depression looming, fascism rising and international co-operation reeling.

It was a time that called for clarity, it was a time that called for strength and conviction. And so it is today, my friends.

In Silicon Valley, tech leaders speak of the singularity — the moment in which change progresses so far that we enter into a post-human era. I think that is a long way off — indeed it may never come.

But recent tech shifts are significant enough to call this a new chapter — if you like, I call it the great remaking of our society. A phase where innovation leaps forward and reshapes geopolitics, redefining diplomacy and security once again.

War has sadly returned to our continent — spreading from the battlefield into cyberspace. Power is being redefined — not just by armies, but by algorithms. And the international order is under strain — from disinformation to digital surveillance, AI-enabled weapons to quantum disruption.

So, our diplomatic tools have got to adapt.

They have to become sharper and more effective at building partnerships. So we can seize the immense opportunities that lie ahead.

That is why the UK is working with friends and allies — to shape those norms, to promote responsible innovation and embed safety into emerging technologies. And Switzerland is one of our closest and dearest partners.

Together, our scientists are developing early-warning systems for cyber threats. Our universities are creating tools to expose disinformation. And our governments are holding talks on the risks of emerging technologies — from AI to quantum to cyber.

We are also making progress in the fight against dirty money — the kind that fuels inequality, undermines democracy and holds back the world’s poorest. This is a global fight, and it demands global resolve. Switzerland is a vital partner in that endeavour.

I am looking forward to hosting a summit next year in London to build an international coalition for transparency, enforcement, and reform. Because when we act together, we can turn the tide.

But this partnership is not just about managing problems — it’s about unlocking opportunity. In the last few years, we’ve signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen our science and research ties. And our innovation agencies have funded  40 joint projects — from life sciences to next generation tech.

The same spirit of collaboration guides our pursuit of peace. Switzerland’s role as guardian of the Geneva Conventions and its record in mediation is unmatched.

And together, we are supporting peace efforts from Myanmar to Colombia. This includes co-funding a pioneering study on how to bring reluctant parties together for dialogue and talks.

This partnership is a model for diplomacy in the 21st century: agile, collaborative and forward-looking. And that is why I am here – to help shape a future where British–Swiss cooperation is even stronger.

On a personal note, I’m also delighted to be part of this film festival — I just wish I could stay longer but international events mean I cannot. Given my job, you might be surprised to hear that I enjoy dark, intense, even tragic films. Just as those dramas ask us to stay with the story — through painful and uncomfortable moments — diplomacy asks us to do the same.

So, in this moment of extraordinary change, let us rededicate ourselves to working together — patiently and persistently. Not turning away or switching off. But engaging in diplomacy that is progressive, realistic and innovative.

Seeing the world with clear eyes — as it is, and as we wish it to be. And deepening our collaboration — guided by shared values and fuelled by shared purpose.

That is how we build peace, defend freedom, and shape a future grounded in cooperation and hope.

That, to me, is the true spirit of Locarno. And that is the spirit we must carry forward — together.

The comments made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Kuala Lumpur on 11 July 2025.

Thank you all. Minister Bui, we’re grateful for Vietnam’s support as our country coordinator. And Minister Mohamad, it’s such a pleasure to be here in your beautiful country.

Last year, I told ASEAN I wanted to reconnect Britain with the world. Today, I’m the first British Foreign Secretary to return to one of these meetings since we became your newest Dialogue Partner.

I hope this consistency is welcome right now. The world feels no less volatile than it did a year ago.

Rapid technological change is remaking our societies, rewiring our economies, reshaping the global balance of power.

I agree countries like ours need to respond with resilience, with innovation and dynamism, and by putting people – our citizens – first.

Those are the values of your Community Vision 2045, precisely what we hope partnership with Britain can achieve.

As our recently published Trade Strategy set out, we believe this region offers real potential for our businesses to expand. We are working with you to unlock that.

That’s why we backed CPTPP’s decision in May to work towards a dialogue this year with ASEAN, why we’ve been supporting development of the ASEAN Power Grid, why we’re backing British firms to scale up their investments here.

Likewise, as our recently published National Security Strategy stressed, our region’s security and your region’s security are inextricably linked.

Russia illegally invaded Ukraine – that has consequences for markets here in Asia. North Korean troops fight for Russia – that has consequences for our Ukrainian friends on the European frontline. Smugglers or scammers ply their criminal trade – that has consequences for all our citizens and, ultimately, our tax revenues.

At the heart of our security cooperation is a shared commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The recent visit of Britain’s Carrier Strike Group and this Dialogue Partnership are just 2 examples of how, together, we can support this goal.

We stand firmly behind ASEAN centrality, recognising it underpins peace, prosperity and stability across the region.

All told, we’ve done a lot on both growth and security this past year. Nearly 95% of our Action Plan on track for delivery, the commitments we made last year in our first joint ministerial statement well under way.

Our job now is to go further, ahead of the fifth anniversary of this partnership next year and a new Action Plan to guide our cooperation to 2030.

I’m looking forward to discussing how we do so.

The speech made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, in London on 2 July 2025.

Ladies and Gentleman, Friends.

It’s a great, great pleasure to be here today. Thank you to Sumaila and the team behind the Africa Debate, for bringing us all together.

This week, it’s 25 years since I was first elected the Member of Parliament for Tottenham and therefore began my journey in public life. So I want to start by looking back for just a moment in time.

I was a Member of Parliament and then a Junior Minister in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. And they were both very, very focused on Africa and the continent of Africa.

However, when I look back on that period, it was most definitely  principally through the lens of development and aid. This was the era of the Jubilee debt campaign. It was absolutely the era of the Millennium Development Goals. Make Poverty History was the theme of the day and the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in 2005, implementing many of the recommendations of Blair’s Commission for Africa.

These efforts left of course a legacy. In 2000, almost two-thirds of all sub-Saharan Africans lived on under three dollars a day, by 2010, when Gordon Brown left office, the figure was under half.

But when I became Foreign Secretary last year, I wanted to modernise our approach to Africa, modernise our approach to development.

I of course had been travelling to the continent for many, many years, the first country I ever visited was Kenya. But I’d seen the transformation of cities and communities, all brimming with huge potential.

And I suppose I also benefited from my own heritage in the Global South. My parents hailed from Guyana. And so I understood some of the frustrations of countries and communities when it felt like the West was ignoring people or not listening to people, not understanding what they really needed.

I wanted to change that. And to reset relations then with the Global South, and particularly with Africa. And to implement a new approach, partnership, not paternalism.

Genuine partnership is, by definition, between two equals each respecting the other. So in this job, I have tried to show that respect. And in the past year, I have visited eight African countries. The first Foreign Secretary to visit South Africa or Morocco since William Hague. And the first Foreign Secretary ever to visit the great country of Chad.

And on my first visit to the continent as Foreign Secretary, I launched consultations on our new Africa Approach. A five-month listening exercise, hearing from governments, from civil society and diaspora communities, from businesses and universities, from Cape Town to Cairo, from Dakar to Djibouti, what they valued, what they wanted to see from Britain.

We needed to listen. And I thank you all for your engagement over the course of this process and for what you told us, what we needed to hear.

The message actually didn’t surprise me. Because what African people want from Britain is exactly what British people want from Africa. You want, we want, growth.

And not just any form of growth, a jump in numbers on a spreadsheet for a year or two.

But a secure, sustainable growth for everyone, high-quality jobs, affordable prices, citizens living better lives than those of their ancestors.

You want, we want, opportunity.

Opportunity arising from our respective strengths, like the British education system, like of course the City of London, the incredible natural assets and energised young people across Africa, and our collective commitment to multilateralism.

And you want, and we want partnerships. Partnerships that harness our deep historic ties, and the array of personal connections that exist between us.

But partnerships that also continue to grow and deepen, as we both invest in them. That’s just a snapshot of a detailed piece of work.

But of course, the work can only be beginning. The real test of our Africa Approach, and this was clear in the consultation as well, is how we put it into practice.

Because talk is cheap. It’s actions in the end that count. I am excited by the deals driving growth that we have been delivering so far.

A new Strategic Partnership with Nigeria, a new growth plan with South Africa, a new partnership with Morocco, joint work on a new AI strategy in Ghana, and new investments in Tanzania and of course in Kenya, announced in the first East Africa Trade and Investment Forum here in London in May.

And thanks to our Developing Countries Trading Scheme, and free trade agreements with many African countries, almost £15 billion of goods were exported from Africa to Britain tariff-free last year.

And following the publication of the British Government’s new Trade Strategy, we will further simplify the rules of the DCTS scheme which benefits thirty-eight African countries, and review our tariffs with South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.

The Trade Strategy reinforces Britain’s belief in the power of free trade. And the largest free trade area in the world is Africa’s.

And that’s why we back the rollout of the African Continent Free Trade Agreement, reducing barriers to intra-African trade through support in areas like digital trade and custom cooperation.

And we will increase opportunities for British firms to play their part, just as it will increase prosperity in Africa. The British businesses and investors in this room have a big part to play. And I want our Ambassadors, our High Commissioners working closely with you, so that together, we can play a confident role in investing more, and supporting the growth of the African market.

So, more trade, more investment, this is the best path to prosperity for all.

And there is a role of course for development as well. But this has to be a modernised approach to development, recognising that fundamentally development is about growth, development is about jobs, development is about business.

The modern development expert needs to have a mindset of an investor, not a donor. Looking for the best return, not offering the biggest handout.

And it’s in that spirit that British International Investment recently signed an MoU with South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation, one of Africa’s largest asset managers.

And this week agreed to support Wave Money Mobile, an exciting African fintech unicorn.

And it’s also in that spirit that Britain is co-hosting the next Global Fund replenishment summit in South Africa.

And just last week I made a £1.25 billion pledge to the recent Gavi replenishment in Brussels, the largest of any sovereign donor.

That work will save lives – many, many millions. But it will also unlock economic value -every pound given to Gavi drives £54 in wider economic benefit.

And, crucially, it unlocks value in Britain and Africa. Gavi works closely with cutting-edge British pharmaceutical firms like GSK. And it’s also designed the first African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, which is using industry partnerships to deliver vaccines for Africa.

Vaccines, and this is very important, because people talked about that during the COVID pandemic, they asked the question, why, why are we failing, the West failing to vaccinate the African continent, and that was an important question.

But there was a second question – why has the African continent not got its own manufacturing capability, and that is what we now need to deliver in Africa.

Working with partners like Nigeria, we are pushing for organisations like Gavi and the Global Fund to work together and reform, so that their work has national ownership at its heart.

National ownership is similarly important when it comes to reforming wider international finance, especially for climate and nature.

And thank you, President Ruto, for your leadership on the climate issue particularly. The theme of your conference is precisely the right framing, Africa has Natural Capital. But it cannot unlock this if we make it impossibly challenging for states to access the finance that they need.

At the recent Development Finance Summit in Seville, we were again pushing for reforms of the multilateral development banks and the IMF. We have to mobilise private capital and use guarantees to unlock more funds.

To empower regional development banks, like the African Development Bank, where developing countries have more of a voice. To tackle unsustainable debt. To work with the City to bring innovations like disaster risk insurance and strengthen local capital markets.

One example of what this can mean comes from Sierra Leone, where I can announce £2 million pounds worth of British government investment to back a mangrove restoration project by West Africa Blue. The project protects over 90,000 hectares of mangrove estuaries, improving coastal and community resilience.

But it is also demonstrating how this model can be commercially viable, unlocking future investment in similar projects in the future. And finally, alongside our work on trade, on investment and development finance, we have heard the clear message from the consultation on illicit finance as well.

I know that this message is not new. For years, friends in Africa have been saying Britain needs to do more to tackle dirty money. Kleptocrats and money launderers rob all our citizens of wealth and security.

And now, the Government is listening too. That’s why I’ve started imposing sanctions on crooks who siphon off public money for themselves, like Isabel dos Santos of Angola and Kamlesh Pattni’s illicit gold smuggling network.

And that’s why I’ve also announced that London will be hosting a Countering Illicit Finance Summit, bringing together a broad range and a broad coalition from the Global North and the Global South, to drive these criminals out of our economies.

Friends, I said the messages of our recent consultations were that Africa wanted more growth, Africa wanted more opportunities, Africa wanted more partnerships.

In effect, Africa wants Britain to help them to have more choices. Choices over who to do business with, because it’s choices which matter in a volatile geopolitical age.

Britain wants choices too. And I believe that, given the choice, more and more British businesses and investors will be choosing Africa in the coming years.

But don’t take my word for it – let’s hear from an African voice. It’s my pleasure now to introduce to the stage a great partner of the UK, a global leader on climate and nature action, and our next keynote speaker, His Excellency, Dr William Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya.

The speech made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, at the British High Commission in Singapore on 12 July 2025.

It’s great to be here today.

As you have heard, I recently marked 25 years as a member of Parliament and this week one year as Foreign Secretary. It’s a pleasure to visit your great country following your sixtieth birthday as a nation.

Whenever I’ve come to Singapore and the wider ASEAN region, I’m struck by the innovative spirit, the creativity and the optimism.

Sixty years ago, Prime Minister Harold Wilson talked of the “white heat of technology” transforming British society and industry. Today, the whole world is being radically reconfigured by technology, but nowhere faster, or more successfully, than here.

I’m particularly pleased to be here after my second ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Malaysia. In Laos last year, I promised to reconnect Britain to the Indo-Pacific and that is well underway.

In just over a year, I’ve made 5 visits spanning 10 countries to the region. I’ve no doubt this will rise during my time in this job.

The Indo-Pacific matters to the UK. ASEAN will be the world’s fastest-growing economic bloc over the next decade. Your investments into Britain like Malaysian firm SMD Semiconductor’s new R&D hub in Wales, your market of 700 million consumers are a huge part of our growth ambitions.

Over the past year, we have been delivering on our promise to bring our economies closer together. Our CPTPP membership now ratified, our free trade agreement with India now signed our Industrial and Trade Strategies now published all speak to a hugely ambitious future for Britain in the Indo-Pacific.

But we want to go much further.  We’re working with ASEAN on their Power Grid and economic resilience.  We support CPTPP widening, deepening, and starting dialogues with trading blocs like ASEAN and the EU.

We are exploring other agreements, too, like a deeper FTA with South Korea or accession to the Digital Economic Partnership Agreement which Singapore co-founded. Today’s ‘digital trade’ will tomorrow simply be ‘trade’, and Britain is committed to making it faster, cheaper and easier.

As you in Singapore know very well this region is the crucible for global security. Partner countries like Britain must stand up for an open, stable and rules-based international system because our region’s security and your region’s security are inextricably linked.

Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine drove market turbulence in Asia. Any major supply chain disruption in Asia could push prices up in Britain. If we have learnt one lesson over the past decade, it is that economic security does not respect borders.

That is why Britain’s new National Security Strategy recommitted to the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region. Our Carrier Strike Group recently sailed through your waters – a deployment involving 12 other nations.

We’re deepening our many regional security partnerships including AUKUS and the Five Power Defence Arrangements.

HMS Prince of Wales, as we’ve heard, is participating in Exercise Bersama Lima in September and the Malaysian chair kindly invited me to the ASEAN Regional Forum just yesterday, where I underlined British support for ASEAN centrality and our growing cooperation against transnational crime and illicit finance.

In Singapore, you have proven over generations that it is not size which determines success it is strategic clarity. This is true of technology more than any other area. Singapore has shown what’s possible when digital innovation is matched with long-term thinking and national purpose.

Back in 1981, when most of us were still working out what a computer was, your leaders set up a National Computerisation Committee. In 2014, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong launched the whole-of-government Smart Nation initiative. Then in 2019, Teo Chee Hean unveiled a National AI Strategy.

Each time, your leaders were ahead of the game. Each time there was a broader lesson. Singapore didn’t get ahead by throwing money at the private sector and hoping for the best.

Instead, you built serious public capability like SingPass, thanks to deep technical expertise inside government and investments in areas like compute and data infrastructure.

Starting in this job, I said that Britain needed to do more listening and less lecturing. A huge part of my trip this week has been to listen and, I hope, learn lessons on how we can pursue a similarly long-term strategy embracing technology. That vision must include specific focus on the intersection of AI and diplomacy.

This is not yet a staple of foreign ministry and foreign ministers’ discussions at least in my experience. But I believe that unless we lift our heads above the rat-race of crises and summits and examine the longer-term trends reshaping our world we will be boiled like the proverbial frog.

AI is not just the next rung in the technological ladder. It will deliver a paradigm shift in the distribution and exercise of power. It will redefine how nations project influence how threats emerge and how we defend ourselves. It will therefore transform how diplomacy is conducted.

As Prime Minister Wong said earlier this year: “The once-rising tide of global cooperation that defined the past decades is giving way to one of growing competition and distrust.  As a result, the world is becoming more fragmented and disorderly”.

There is much evidence of emerging technology catalysing the deterioration of both domestic and international norms. AI is at the spearhead of hybrid threats like disinformation. It is not enough for responsible states to complain about others’ reckless behaviour.

If we do not invest in gaining technological edge then our influence will inevitably decline. So today I want to outline a more hopeful vision of a sovereign, AI-enabled foreign policy.

I am proud of the role British diplomacy played at the Bletchley AI Safety Summit, our creation of the AI Security Institute, our plans for a new counter-hybrid taskforce in the FCDO to ready us for this new age.

I’m pleased also to see our work with Singapore in areas such as Responsible AI in the Military Realm and with ASEAN on AI for development.

But there has been little discussion between Britain and partners in the Indo-Pacific and beyond on how to use AI and advanced technology to make our diplomacy more effective.

I am determined to address this gap as Foreign Secretary, bringing AI to the centre of the FCDO’s policy machine. Like most foreign ministries, too many Foreign Office practices have changed little over the past half century. But the old levers of government – briefings, memos, lengthy debates on drafting – are too slow and cumbersome for the pace of modern statecraft.

In an age of ever-accelerating speed and complexity we need the tools to match. Let me be clear: AI will obviously not solve foreign policy. It will not eliminate risk, nor remove the need for careful human judgement and the ability of people to build trusting relationships, as I have been doing with ASEAN partners this week.

Diplomacy in 2025 needs machine speed and a human touch. It can help us to make better decisions amidst rising uncertainty. It can improve our ability to detect early signals of crisis, to simulate the likely effects of policy choices and to respond with speed and confidence.

Imagine for a moment an AI-powered unit at the heart of a foreign ministry. That could catalyse patterns of military movement, energy flows, and online narratives, model how a diplomatic crisis in one part of the world will have ripple effects elsewhere, red-team our response to a crisis – attacking our own policies before others can. Or flag emerging risks that human analysts might miss, especially when they emerge in grey zones favoured by adversaries.

These capabilities are not science fiction. They are already being employed. The United States’ DARPA and KAIROS projects already simulate complex political developments and anticipate conflict escalation. Estonia’s STRATCOM Centre uses AI-enabled systems to detect disinformation campaigns in real time.

Of course, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry uses predictive analytics to flag risks to critical supply chains.

The question before us is not whether AI will shape foreign policy. It is who will shape it, and how.

In the British Foreign Office, this government is investing £290 million in reforming our Department, helping to equip our teams with the capabilities and technologies that the modern era demands.

But outside of the United States and China, no country has the scale to deliver all the capabilities we need independently.

My call today is therefore for more collaboration, more AI diplomacy within a perimeter of values. I want partners such as Britain and Singapore to align standards, share tools and develop models that reflect our shared principles.

Deep bilateral partnerships will be at the core of Britain’s approach. For us, our special relationship with the United States will remain foundational rooted in particular on our deep security links.

With the European Union, we can pursue AI cooperation through the prism of foreign policy and security, not just regulation, and I will be discussing this with Kaja Kallas as part of our recently agreed Security and Defence Partnership.

With India through the ‘Technology Security Initiative’ we agreed last year, we will focus collaboration more sharply in critical and emerging technologies.

And with other Indo-Pacific partners I hope that we can build on initiatives like the UK-ASEAN AI Innovation Summit later this year and extend cooperation to AI-enabled foreign policy.

I said that you in Singapore have shown the power of long-term thinking. The importance of a long-term vision, and I hope we can apply that same approach to breaking down the silos between foreign policy and technology.

We live in a volatile world. Technology is reshaping our societies, making power more diffuse. Nations like Britain and Singapore need to equip ourselves with the tools to navigate these shifts and that means fusing AI and diplomacy, focusing on a long view of change and doubling down on our shared interests.

Thank you.

The statement made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, in the House of Commons on 20 May 2025.

With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will make a statement on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This weekend, the Israel Defence Forces started a new, extensive ground operation throughout Gaza: Operation Gideon’s Chariots. Five Israeli divisions now operate there. Prime Minister Netanyahu says that they are going to take control of the strip, letting only minimal amounts of food reach Gazans; to quote Mr Netanyahu,

“just enough to prevent hunger.”

Fewer than 10 trucks entered Gaza yesterday. The UN and the World Health Organisation have issued stark warnings of the threat of starvation hanging over hundreds of thousands of civilians. This is abominable. Civilians in Gaza facing starvation, homelessness and trauma, desperate for this war to end, now confront renewed bombardment, displacement and suffering. The remaining hostages, kept apart from their loved ones by Hamas for almost 600 days, are now at heightened risk from the war around them.

Two months ago the ceasefire collapsed. Since then, the humanitarian catastrophe has rapidly intensified. For 11 weeks, Israeli forces have blockaded Gaza, leaving the World Food Programme without any remaining stocks. Israel has repeatedly struck hospitals, and three more in northern Gaza ceased operations this weekend. Yet more aid workers and medical workers have been killed, after last year proved the deadliest year on record for humanitarian personnel.

The diplomatic deadlock between Israel and Hamas has also hardened. Despite the efforts of the United States, Qatar and Egypt, which we of course support, no ceasefire has emerged. We repeat our demand that Hamas release all the hostages immediately and unconditionally, and reiterate that they cannot continue to run Gaza.

We are now entering a dark new phase in this conflict. Netanyahu’s Government plan to drive Gazans from their homes into a corner of the strip to the south and permit them a fraction of the aid that they need. Yesterday, Minister Smotrich even spoke of Israeli forces “cleansing” Gaza, of “destroying what’s left” and of resident Palestinians being “relocated to third countries”. We must call this what it is: it is extremism, it is dangerous, it is repellent, it is monstrous and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.

Israel suffered a heinous attack on 7 October. The Government have always backed Israel’s right to defend itself. We have condemned Hamas and their abhorrent treatment of the hostages. We have stood with the families and demanded that their loved ones be released. Israel’s plan is morally unjustifiable, wholly disproportionate and utterly counterproductive, and whatever Israeli Ministers claim, it is not the way to bring the hostages safely home. Nearly all the hostages have been freed through negotiations, not military force. That is why hostage families themselves, and many other Israelis, oppose this plan so strongly. It will not eliminate Hamas or make Israel secure either. This war has left a generation orphaned and traumatised, ready for Hamas to recruit. As we learned in Northern Ireland, to defeat terrorists and their warped ideology, we cannot just rely on military might; we have to offer a viable political alternative. Opposing the expansion of a war that has killed thousands of children is not rewarding Hamas.

Since entering office, we have taken concerted action on Gaza. We have restored funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, supported the independence of international courts, suspended arms export licences, provided food and medical care to hundreds of thousands of Gazans and worked with Arab partners on a plan to ensure a reconstructed Gaza no longer run by Hamas. Since Israel restarted strikes on Gaza, this Government have demanded that Israel change course.

Privately, in my conversations with Foreign Minister Sa’ar and Strategic Affairs Minister Dermer, and publicly, in repeated joint statements with my French and German counterparts, we have made clear that Israel’s actions are intolerable. We have raised our concerns in the UN Security Council and before the International Court of Justice. Yesterday, my right hon. and learned Friend the Prime Minister joined leaders from France and Canada in strongly opposing the expansion of Israel’s military operations. The UK also led a further statement with 27 partners criticising Israel’s proposed new aid delivery mechanism and defending the essential humanitarian principles of the international system that the UK did so much to establish in the first place.

Our message is clear. There is a UN plan ready to deliver aid at the scale needed, with mitigations against aid diversion. There are brave humanitarians ready to do their jobs. There are over 9,000 trucks at the border. Prime Minister Netanyahu: end this blockade now and let the aid in.

Regrettably, despite our efforts, this Israeli Government’s egregious actions and rhetoric have continued. They are isolating Israel from its friends and partners around the world, undermining the interests of the Israeli people and damaging the image of the state of Israel in the eyes of the world. I find this deeply painful, as a lifelong friend of Israel and a believer in the values expressed in its declaration of independence. As the Prime Minister and fellow leaders said yesterday, we cannot stand by in the face of this new deterioration. It is incompatible with the principles that underpin our bilateral relationship, it is rejected by Members across this House, and frankly, it is an affront to the values of the British people. Therefore, today I am announcing that we have suspended negotiations with this Israeli Government on a new free trade agreement and we will be reviewing co-operation with them under the 2030 bilateral road map. The Netanyahu Government’s actions have made this necessary.

Today, the Minister for the middle east, my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Mr Falconer) is summoning the Israeli ambassador to the Foreign Office to convey this message. I say now to the people of Israel that we want—I want—a strong friendship with you based on shared values, with flourishing ties between our people and societies. We are unwavering in our commitment to your security and to your future, to countering the very real threat from Iran, the scourge of terrorism and the evils of antisemitism. However, the conduct of the war in Gaza is damaging our relationship with their Government and, as the Prime Minister has said, if Israel pursues this military offensive as it has threatened, failing to ensure the unhindered provision of aid, we will take further action in response.

The UK, will not give up on a two-state solution: Israelis living within secure borders, recognised and at peace with their neighbours, free from the threat of terrorism; and Palestinians living in their own state, in dignity and security, free of occupation. The two-state solution remains the ideal framework; indeed, it is the only framework for a just and lasting peace. Yet as the House knows, its very viability is in peril, endangered not only by the war in Gaza but by the spread of illegal Israeli settlements and outposts across the occupied west bank with the explicit support of this Israeli Government.

There are now weekly meetings to approve new settlement construction. Settlement approval has accelerated while settler violence has soared. Here, too, we have acted: repeatedly pressing for a change in course and direction, sanctioning seven entities in October and signing a landmark agreement to bolster support for the Palestinian Authority when Prime Minister Mustafa visited London last month. But here too, we must do more. Today, we are therefore imposing sanctions on a further three individuals and four entities involved in the settler movement. I have seen for myself the consequences of settler violence, the fear of its victims and the impunity of its perpetrators. Today, we are demonstrating again that we will continue to act against those carrying out heinous abuses of human rights.

Despite the glimmer of hope from January’s ceasefire, the suffering in this conflict has worsened. January showed that another path was possible, and we urge the Netanyahu Government to choose this path. The world is judging. History will judge them. Blocking aid, expanding the war and dismissing the concerns of their friends and partners is indefensible and it must stop. I commend this statement to the House.