Tag: Foreign Office

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 18 February 2024.

The Minister for Development is in Qatar to launch a $50 million co-funding initiative to help tackle the most pressing humanitarian and development crises.

• UK and Qatar partnership launch $50 million co-funding initiative to help tackle the most pressing humanitarian and development crises around the world, including in Gaza
• funding announced in Doha by UK Development Minister Andrew Mitchell and Qatar Minister for International Co-operation Lolwah Al Khater
• Minister Mitchell spoke with partners about the UK and Qatar’s commitment to supporting the humanitarian response in Gaza, and secured a date for the inaugural UK-Qatar Development Dialogue

The UK and Qatar have announced a joint $50 million global humanitarian and development co-funding initiative today (18 February) as a part of their partnership to help crises around the world, including Gaza.

UK Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell’s has spoken with key figures in Qatar about working hand in hand to respond to humanitarian crisis in Gaza. He was also able to secure a date for the inaugural UK-Qatar Development Dialogue which the UK will host in May. The minister discussed this with Qatar’s Minister for International Co-operation HE Lolwah Al Khater and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Al Khulaifi.

Minister Mitchell announced the joint funding alongside HE Lolwah Al Khater. Under this initiative, the UK and Qatar aim to build on our existing co-funding programmes in the Middle East and Africa by increasing bilateral projects and work through multi-lateral partners globally.

The 2 countries are working closely together to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. Earlier this month, through Qatar Fund For Development, a joint consignment of 29 tonnes of tents was delivered to Gaza, and the initiative announced today aims to deliver significantly more aid to civilians.

Speaking in Doha, UK Development Minister, Andrew Mitchell, said:

I’m delighted to be back in Doha to reinforce the UK’s commitment to our development partnership with Qatar. Together, we have supported countries in need right across the world, including recently providing 29 tonnes of lifesaving aid to support the humanitarian response in Gaza.

Today we have agreed to commit an initial $50 million in joint funding to continue to support the world’s poorest people, and together we intend to go further and faster to alleviate the most pressing global development challenges.

This initial funding is an outcome of the Strategic Development memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Minister Mitchell at last year’s United Nations Least Developed Countries Conference in Qatar.

The UK and Qatar have also agreed to hold an inaugural Development Dialogue, to drive forward further funding commitments. Both countries have co-funded development projects in the Middle East and Africa through our partnership the Qatar Fund For Development.

In Somalia, as part of famine prevention efforts in response to the country’s longest ever drought, the UK and Qatar provided $6.5 million support to humanitarian consortium ‘Building Resilient Communities in Somalia’ in April 2023. This delivered emergency cash assistance to 7,700 families to buy food and water, primary healthcare services to over 200,000 Somalis, including lifesaving vaccinations, and provided lifesaving treatment for over 17,000 severely malnourished children.

In Syria, the 2 countries supported the ‘Syria Education Programme’ which helps over 625,000 children across Northwest Syria to access safe, inclusive and quality education. The programme targets have been exceeded; providing over 16,000 teachers with pay, getting classrooms and toilet blocks refurbished, and ensuring that over 400 schools have sufficient heating to keep children and teachers warm over winter.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 18 February 2024.

The UK and Qatar have issued a joint statement launching a new co-funding initiative for international development cooperation and humanitarian response.

Statement by the governments of the UK and Qatar:

As part of a joint collaborative humanitarian effort between the State of Qatar and the United Kingdom, the 2 states are launching a formally led Qatar-UK co-funding initiative.

Under the initiative, the UK and Qatar will work towards an initial $50 million target to address the most pressing humanitarian and development challenges globally. This marks a significant milestone in the partnership between the 2 countries that underscores our shared commitment.

Through this cooperation, Qatar and the UK will combine their expertise, resources, and networks to implement impactful projects that address both the immediate and long-term challenges faced by communities in these critical areas. This collaborative effort reflects our unwavering dedication to promoting sustainable progress and resilience, with the ultimate goal of improving the lives of millions of people.

Recently, the State of Qatar and the United Kingdom have worked together to deliver 29 tonnes of urgent humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip within the framework of joint humanitarian and development cooperation. In addition, the 2 countries are actively working together to implement several co-funding opportunities, with 2 focused on Syria to bolster crucial humanitarian and educational initiatives, and one aimed at addressing food insecurity in Somalia.

The 2 countries reaffirm their commitment to accelerating progress on these vital initiatives through the inaugural Development Dialogue in London in May 2024. This event will solidify further co-funding opportunities, promote collaboration on development issues and enhance aid delivery capabilities.

Together, the State of Qatar and the United Kingdom are dedicated to addressing the most urgent development challenges with greater urgency and effectiveness.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 17 February 2024.

Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Munich Security Conference on 16th February 2024.

The Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Munich Security Conference.

In line with the Government’s ‘protect, align, and engage’ approach to China, as set out in the Integrated Review Refresh, the Foreign Secretary raised a number of issues important to the UK national interest.

To support constructive engagement between the UK and China, the Foreign Ministers agreed that the UK and China should continue engagement across a range of areas.

This includes trade links; building on our existing cultural ties and links between our peoples; and working together to tackle climate change.

The Foreign Secretary urged China to use its influence on Iran to pressure the Houthis over their actions in the Red Sea.

He further stressed that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine threatens the rules based international system, which is designed to keep us all safe.

The Foreign Secretary also took this opportunity to unambiguously set out the UK’s position across a number of areas of disagreement, including on human rights in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. He raised the case of British Parliamentarians sanctioned by China and reiterated his call for the release of British national Jimmy Lai.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 16 February 2024.

The UK government has made a further statement following the announcement of Senegal’s delayed presidential elections.

A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesperson said:

The United Kingdom continues to follow events in Senegal closely. Given Senegal’s longstanding democratic traditions, we join with The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in urging all parties to respect the decision of the Constitutional Council on 15 February, and call for transparent, inclusive, and credible elections to be organised as quickly as possible.

We urge all parties to show restraint, to maintain calm and the rule of law, and to respect the fundamental freedoms of the Senegalese people. We express our sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in recent protests.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 16 February 2024.

The UK government has summoned the Russian Embassy to make clear that we hold the Russian authorities fully responsible.

A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) spokesperson said:

Alexei Navalny dedicated his life to exposing the corruption of the Russian system, calling for free and open politics, and holding the Kremlin to account.

We stand today with his family, friends, colleagues and supporters. Our thoughts go out to them.

The Russian authorities saw Mr Navalny as a threat. Many Russian citizens felt he gave them a voice.

In recent years, the authorities imprisoned him on fabricated charges, poisoned him with a banned nerve agent, and sent him to an Arctic penal colony.

No-one should doubt the brutal nature of the Russian system.

His death must be investigated fully and transparently.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office today summoned the Russian Embassy to make clear that we hold the Russian authorities fully responsible.

Mr Navalny was a man of great courage and iron will. Even from his prison cell, he continued to speak up for the rights of the Russian people.  His dedication to human rights and exposing corruption was an inspiration to millions. The ideals for which he stood and died will live forever.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 16 February 2024.

The US, UK and Canada have issued a joint statement on coordinated efforts to counter foreign state information manipulation.

The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Canada on coordinated efforts to counter foreign state information manipulation:

The United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada remain deeply concerned about foreign information manipulation and other actions designed to undermine our democracies and human rights globally.

Foreign information manipulation is a national security threat that undermines democratic values, human rights, governmental processes, and political stability. Given the borderless nature of information manipulation, we call on all like-minded countries committed to the rules-based order to work together to identify and counter this threat. Securing the integrity of the global information ecosystem is central to popular confidence in governance institutions and processes, trust in elected leaders, and the preservation of democracy.

The present international system, based on international law and respect for territorial boundaries, is competing with an alternate vision defined by autocratic impunity. This alternate vision deploys foreign malign influence aimed at undermining our safety and security, with disregard for universal human rights and the rule of law.

The time is now for a collective approach to the foreign information manipulation threat that builds a coalition of like-minded countries committed to strengthening resilience and response to information manipulation. We can do this through coordinated, whole of society solutions that work with experts, independent media and multilateral organizations, to address these transnational security threats.

That is why today, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada jointly endorse the Framework to Counter Foreign State Information Manipulation, which affirms our shared understanding of the threat and offers a holistic view of how to address the foreign information manipulation challenge. It aims to standardize our approach to this problem and build interoperable and complementary systems to resist this threat as technologies continue to emerge and adapt. The Framework complements the high-level international commitments from the Global Declaration on Information Integrity Online and reinforces our joint efforts and commitment to protect and promote information integrity.

The United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada intend to collaborate on building partner countries’ resilience to foreign information manipulation by advancing the Framework’s Key Action Areas: national strategies and policies; governance structures and institutions; capacity; civil society, independent media, and academia; and multilateral engagement.

The United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada intend to jointly work on operationalizing relevant Key Action Areas through new and existing multilateral mechanisms, such as the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism, and in coordination with other likeminded partners and multilateral organizations.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 15 February 2024.

Statement by Ambassador James Kariuki at the UN Security Council meeting on threats to international peace and security.

Thank you, President, let me thank Under Secretary Voronkov, Executive Director Gherman, and Secretary-General Stock for their briefings today. I also thank the Monitoring Team for their work on the report.

The United Kingdom remains deeply concerned at the prospect of Daesh resurgence in the Middle East. As the report notes, though the threat in Iraq and Syria has been effectively suppressed, it remains a serious threat.

Iranian-aligned militias continue to attack the Coalition Forces that are directly working to remove Daesh’s malignant influence in the region, in partnership with the Government of Iraq.

The United Kingdom calls on Iran to use influence to stop these attacks and de-escalate regional tensions. It is in all our interests to prevent Daesh from projecting its poisonous ideology and inflicting death and destruction across the region.

Turning to Africa, the UK is deeply concerned at Daesh’s growing presence across the continent. We stand ready to support our African partners and intensify efforts to improve coordination and strengthen regional cooperation. UN entities play an important role and we welcome their cooperation with the African Union to build capacity and squeeze the spaces in violent extremist networks can flourish. We also encourage cooperation between UN Global Counter Terrorism Coordination Compact members, and we welcome INTERPOL’s role in this.

Finally, we must not ignore the disproportionate impact that terrorism has on women and girls. This year, we mark the 10th anniversary of atrocities committed against the Yezidi people.

We commend the important work done by UNITAD with the support of the Iraqi authorities to investigate sexual crimes by terrorists against women and girls.

President, we know that Daesh thrive in divided, fragile and unstable environments. We all have a responsibility to counter their ideology and provide an alternative future.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 15 February 2024.

Statement by Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council meeting on Libya.

Thank you, President and I thank SRSG Bathily and Ambassador Yamazaki Kazuyuki for their briefings today.

We welcome the SRSG’s continued efforts to convene representatives of key actors for a preparatory meeting, as a critical next step towards breaking the political impasse and delivering elections.

But as we heard from the SRSG, constructive engagement and genuine compromise from all sides are necessary for this process to be successful. We note that some of the actors have either refused to nominate representatives or have attached conditions to their attendance. So we echo the SRSG’s call on all parties to engage meaningfully with the UN process, without preconditions, and to meet under UN auspices to resolve the issues that are delaying elections.

As I witnessed first-hand during my visit to Tripoli last year, it is the Libyan people who continue to suffer from this political stalemate. Nearly six months have passed since the devastating floods in Derna and reconstruction is hampered by the lack of a unified and transparent approach. Basic healthcare and other services are not functioning.

The political stalemate also exacerbates the challenges civil society organisations face across Libya. We remain concerned by the shrinking of civil society space, the rise of human rights violations,  particularly towards migrants and refugees as the SRSG highlighted, and the increasingly restrictive environment for women.

We welcome efforts by the High National Elections Commission to hold municipal elections across the country. However, we are concerned by reports that eleven HNEC field offices were forced to suspend operations in southern and eastern Libya at the start of February. We strongly urge Libya’s leaders to provide the necessary support to facilitate municipal elections, allowing Libyan people to exercise their democratic rights.

President, as the SRSG has asked, we need to put our collective effort and collective support behind building momentum towards elections. Libyans will benefit from a democratic, united, and stable state. So we urge Libyan leaders to engage constructively with the SRSG to fulfil their responsibilities to the Libyan people. And the UK will continue to work with partners and support the SRSG and UNSMIL towards this aim.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 15 February 2024.

Mr Philip Malone LVO has been appointed British High Commissioner to the Kingdom of Tonga in succession to Ms Lucy Joyce OBE.

Curriculum Vitae

Full name: Philip Malone

Place of birth: Leeds, UK

Year	Role
2018 to 2023	Ulaanbaatar, His Majesty’s Ambassador
2015 to 2018	FCO, Deputy Head, South East Asia and Pacific Department
2012 to 2015	Vientiane, Her Majesty’s Ambassador
2008 to 2012	Helsinki, Deputy Head of Mission
2003 to 2008	Singapore, Head of Chancery
1999 to 2002	FCO, Head of France/Benelux Team and Deputy Head of Department (2002)
1995 to 1999	Bandar Seri Begawan, Second Secretary (Defence/Chancery)
1992 to 1994	Luxembourg, Third Secretary (Commercial/PPA)
1989 to 1992	FCO, Assistant Parliamentary Clerk
1986 to 1989	Guatemala City, Third Secretary
1983 to 1986	Buenos Aires, Attaché
1981 to 1983	FCO, Attaché, Eastern European and Soviet Department

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 15 February 2024.

Ambassador Neil Holland thanks the ODIHR mission for observing the Presidential election that took place on 7 February in Azerbaijan.

The United Kingdom welcomes the fact that Azerbaijan invited an ODIHR mission to observe the Presidential election that took place on 7 February. We were pleased to contribute 10 Short Term Observers to this mission.

We also welcome the establishment of an Expert Group by the Azerbaijan Central Election Committee to consider election complaints. This election was calm and provisions to allow the Internally Displaced Population to vote in their historic constituencies have been positively noted. We also note the preliminary findings of the observer mission’s report, which indicate that the election took place in a restrictive environment without genuine political alternatives. Some serious violations were observed, some of which run counter to the 1990 Copenhagen Document. The United Kingdom respectfully encourages Azerbaijan to evaluate and fully implement ODIHR’s recommendations.

We would once again like to express our thanks to the ODIHR mission for playing an impartial and expert role in assessing the design and implementation of democratic processes in Azerbaijan and all OSCE participating States. The UK stands ready to support Azerbaijan in taking forward electoral reforms and improvements to the democratic process on the basis of ODIHR’s recommendations.