Tag: Foreign Office

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 29 December 2023.

Explanation of vote by Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan.

Colleagues, I would first like to thank the penholders, the UAE and Japan, not only for their tireless efforts on this important text but also for their creativity and tenacity, which led to the Council mandating the independent assessment on Afghanistan, which was very ably executed by Ambassador Feridun Sinirlioğlu.

As we’ve said multiple times in this chamber, we should seize the momentum of the independent assessment with the hope of changing Afghanistan’s current negative trajectory.

At the same time, the Taliban has a responsibility to meet its international commitments, including via the immediate reversal of policies restricting women’s rights and fundamental freedoms.

So, we encourage all parties, including Afghan and international stakeholders, to take forward the independent assessment’s recommendations, working towards an Afghanistan that is at peace with its people, its neighbours, and the international community.

Thank you, President.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 29 December 2023.

The Media Freedom Coalition gave a statement on media freedom in Hong Kong on the second anniversary of the closure of Stand News and arrest of its staff.

On the second anniversary of the closure of Stand News and arrest of its staff, whose prosecution remains ongoing, the members of the Media Freedom Coalition issued the following statement on media freedom in Hong Kong.

The undersigned members of the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC) remain deeply concerned at the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese authorities’ continued attacks on freedom of the press and their suppression of independent local media in Hong Kong.

Local media have intensified self-censorship since the imposition of the National Security Law in June 2020. Prosecutions of media workers in connection with sedition legislation have increased. Use of these laws to suppress journalism undermines Hong Kong’s autonomy and the rights and freedoms of the people in Hong Kong as promised in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and guaranteed in the Basic Law.

The Hong Kong authorities’ prolonged prosecutions of journalists like the Stand News team and publishers such as Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai creates a chilling effect on others in the press and media. They come against the backdrop of loss of editorial independence, the barring of journalists seeking to cover government press briefings and the removal of material from public broadcasting archives.

Freedom of the press has been central to Hong Kong’s success for many years. Curtailing the space for free expression of alternative views weakens vital checks and balances on executive power. The free flow and exchange of opinions and information is vital to Hong Kong’s people, business and international reputation.

We urge the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities to abide by their international human rights commitments and legal obligations and to preserve Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and respect for universal rights and freedoms.

The member countries of the MFC will always defend media freedom and freedom of expression. The member countries of the MFC will continue to stand up for those who are targeted simply for exercising their human rights.

Signed by:

Australia, Austria, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 28 December 2023.

Statement by the spokespersons of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States on the latest Iranian nuclear steps reported by the IAEA.

The 26 December 2023 report by the IAEA highlights that Iran has increased its rate of production of uranium enriched up to 60% at Natanz and Fordow to levels observed between January and June 2023. These findings represent a backwards step by Iran and will result in Iran tripling its monthly production rate of uranium enriched up to 60%.

We condemn this action, which adds to the unabated escalation of Iran’s nuclear programme. The production of high-enriched uranium by Iran has no credible civilian justification and the reported production at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant and the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant further carries significant proliferation-related risks. We also take note of Iran’s decision to revert to the same cascade configuration as the one discovered by the IAEA in Fordow earlier this year. Iran’s delay in declaring this change in January 2023 cast serious doubts on Iran’s willingness to cooperate with the IAEA in full transparency.

These decisions demonstrate Iran’s lack of good will towards de-escalation and represent reckless behaviour in a tense regional context.

We urge Iran to immediately reverse these steps and de-escalate its nuclear programme. Iran must fully cooperate with the IAEA to enable it to provide assurances that its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful, and to re-designate the inspectors suspended in September 2023.

We remain committed to a diplomatic solution and reaffirm our determination that Iran must never develop a nuclear weapon.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 27 December 2023.

UK support to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will boost food security, protect the planet, and reduce poverty.

• UK support to IFAD will boost food security, protect the planet, and reduce poverty
• it will help promote agricultural growth that is environmentally friendly
• this funding will be focused on helping poor rural farmers and producers

The UK is boosting support to poor rural farmers around the world to boost food security for the future.

Nearly half of the world’s population lives in the rural areas of developing countries and rely on small farms for their livelihoods.

These small farms are critical to feeding the world, producing up to 70% of food eaten in low- and middle-income countries.

To protect these livelihoods and global food security, the UK is pledging £66.7 million to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN agency dedicated to supporting those living in extreme poverty rural areas.

Since 2021, the number of people facing a serious lack of food has increased by 34%. In Africa, about 20% of the population faces hunger. Progress against the UN Global Goal on ending hunger and malnutrition is in reverse and current projections indicate that 670 million will still be facing hunger in 2030.

This work is more urgent now than ever. While global food systems are struggling in the face of conflict and economic turmoil and climate change, rural people and small-scale farmers are particularly vulnerable to climate shocks, instability and forced migration.

The UK is leading efforts to find solutions. Last month the UK hosted the Global Food Security Summit which brought together partner countries, organisations and world-renowned experts – including IFAD – to explore ways of ending hunger and malnutrition.

The UK is a founding member of IFAD, whose programmes improve food security and nutrition, empower women and girls and help protect the planet. IFAD-supported projects help farmers to increase yields through enhanced soil and pest management, fertilizer use and access to better quality seeds. They also help rural women grow more food, connect to markets, increase their incomes, and become more literate and financially skilled.

It aims to support more than 100 million poor rural people from its latest replenishment round.

Minister for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell said:

Christmas is a good moment to reflect that the world is in the throes of a serious food security crisis. Feeding the world may sound like a cliché at this time of year, but hunger and malnutrition are a scourge, putting lives and livelihoods under grave threat. The tragic irony is that we live in a world of plenty. It is scandalous that anyone should go to bed hungry for reasons that we have the power to fix.

That is why the UK is investing £66.7 million in IFAD’s work for the next 3 years. Simple steps like better land management and smarter farming practices can help produce more crops and reduce waste. Renewable technology will help farmers rise to the climate challenge in a way that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and protects the natural environment.

We must act before the food crisis reached unconscionable proportions. In less than 30 years’ time there will be 2 billion more mouths to feed in the world than there are today. We urgently need to increase food production and make food systems sustainable.

President of IFAD, Alvaro Lario said:

We are grateful to the United Kingdom for their generous contribution to IFAD’s 13th Replenishment, which confirms their unwavering commitment to eradicating rural poverty and hunger.

This contribution will further strengthen our long-standing partnership, a relationship that has played a vital role in transforming the livelihoods of millions of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable rural people. The UK’s pioneering investments in small-scale agriculture climate adaptation have been instrumental in empowering smallholder farmers and building resilient food systems in the face of climate change.

The UK has been the driving force behind IFAD’s Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP), which channels climate finance to smallholder farmers to build their resilience, increasing yields and enhancing biodiversity.

For each dollar invested in ASAP, IFAD was able to leverage $6.5 from other governments and organisations to help build climate work into all IFAD agricultural projects, supporting an additional 3.2 million people to cope with the impacts of climate change.

Further information

• the UK has been a core contributor to IFAD since it was founded in 1978
• this replenishment covers the 3-year period from 2025 to 2027

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 22 December 2023.

Statement by Deputy Political Coordinator Tom Phipps at the UN Security Council meeting on Syria chemical weapons.

Thank you President, and in this last open briefing on the agenda for this month, let me join others in congratulating you for the manner in which you and your team have conducted your Presidency this month.

I would also like to thank Director Ebo, as always, for his detailed briefing and to express gratitude to the Director-General of the OPCW for his 122nd report and to the OPCW more broadly for its ongoing and vital work to uphold the Chemical Weapons Convention.

President, contrary to the expectations of the Representative of the Russian delegation, the UK welcomes the 25th round of consultations between the OPCW and the Syrian regime that took place last month in Damascus.  We commend the OPCW Declaration and Assessment Team for their hard work to reconcile discrepancies in Syria’s declaration.

However, it is nonetheless important that we are clear: this limited concession does not redress Syria’s long-standing non-compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. The Syrian regime has consistently blocked the OPCW’s work, refusing visas and insisting on unacceptable conditions.

President, the Declaration Assessment Team is of course entitled to full and unfettered access to inspect any and all sites in Syria, not just the limited in-country activities that they have conducted this year. And as Director Ebo briefed, sampling by the Declaration Assessment Team at two sites in April 2023 indicated further issues with Syria’s declaration of its chemical weapons holdings. Not only does this reduce what little faith we had in Syria’s declaration, but it clearly demonstrates Syria’s continuing disregard for the Chemical Weapons Convention and the principles that nearly all of us around this table uphold.

President, as we have said many times before, the outstanding issues on Syria’s Chemical Weapons Declaration are not academic. They include the whereabouts of hundreds of tonnes of chemical weapons agents and thousands of munitions. Syria’s chemical weapons remain a threat to international peace and security until its chemical weapons programme has been fully and verifiably destroyed.

We therefore welcome the decision in November of the Chemical Weapons Convention Conference of States Parties. This new decision will strengthen cooperation between States Parties to address the global threat from the Syrian Regime’s non-compliance, in particular by taking concrete steps to stop the transfer of toxic chemicals and the materials needed to produce chemical weapons from entering Syria until it fully complies with its Chemical Weapons Convention obligations.

President, the lack of progress on this file is not a reason to reduce our attention on it. On the contrary, it is the lack of progress that requires this Council to remain seized of the matter. Ten years on from its adoption, the provisions of UNSCR 2118 have not been met. The outstanding issues on Syria’s Declaration are unresolved and independent international investigations have found the Syrian Regime responsible for at least nine chemical weapons attacks on its own people.

We owe it to the thousands of victims of chemical weapons attacks in Syria and elsewhere to continue our work until Syria’s chemical weapons no longer present a threat to international peace and security.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 22 December 2023.

Explanation of vote by Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council meeting on Gaza.

President, the United Kingdom welcomes the adoption of this resolution to get more aid into Gaza.

As my Foreign Secretary has said, it is heartbreaking to see children in the rubble of their destroyed homes, not knowing where to find food or water, not knowing where their parents are. It is also heartbreaking to hear the stories of families who still do not know the whereabouts of their loved ones who were brutally taken on 7 October.

And it is heart wrenching to know that aid is piling up outside Gaza but not getting to the people that need it when we hear daily warnings that people are starving, disease is spreading, and basic healthcare is lacking.

The UK is doing everything we can to get more aid in.

We have tripled UK aid to the region.

We were the first country to call on Israel to open more crossings.

The UK has experts on the ground providing logistical support at Al-Arish in Egypt.

And today, we support this resolution which will streamline aid checks so we can massively scale up the humanitarian response; demands the immediate and unconditional release of hostages; and calls for steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.

For the avoidance of doubt, we are clear that the resolution is without prejudice to the rights and obligations of the parties under international humanitarian law.

The adoption is an important signal of the Security Council’s commitment.

President, our actions today, and in the future, must help ensure the horror of 7 October never happens again.  We unequivocally condemn Hamas’s acts of terror and support Israel’s right to self defence.

My Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have been loud and clear in their calls for a sustainable ceasefire, as soon as possible. But a ceasefire will not last if Hamas is still able to operate in tunnels and launch rocket attacks.

Our commitment to Israel’s security is firm as Israel deals with the threat from Hamas.

Ultimately, we support a two-state solution that guarantees true security and stability for both the Israeli and Palestinian people.

We thank the UAE for their leadership on this resolution.

Just this week, my Foreign Secretary and the Minister for the Middle East travelled to Jordan and Egypt to make sure we are supporting every effort to get aid in faster.

We will keep working with all partners to deliver a humanitarian response that meets the huge level of need.

I thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 22 December 2023.

Today, 22 December 2023, the UK voted in favour of United Nations Security Council resolution 2720 calling for expanded humanitarian access in Gaza.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron said:

It is good news that the UN has come together to back a resolution to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The UK is doing everything it can to get more aid in, as I saw when I visited Al Arish in Egypt, near the border with Gaza, this week. People across Gaza urgently need food, medicine and shelter. We have consistently argued for more aid and called on Israel to open more border crossings.

As well as the need for expanded humanitarian access, the UN resolution today demands the immediate and unconditional release of hostages. This is vital.

Crucially, the resolution also calls for steps towards a sustainable ceasefire. This is an outcome that I advocated for last week along with the German Foreign Minister and strongly think is the right approach.

A sustainable ceasefire must mean that Hamas is no longer there, able to threaten Israel with rocket attacks and other forms of terrorism.

This resolution repeats so many of the points we have been making: the importance of complying with international humanitarian law. The need to reduce civilian casualties and it also backs a two-state solution that would be the best long-term guarantee of security and stability for both Israel and the Palestinian people.

We thank the UAE for their leadership on this resolution.

It has been a difficult process to reach agreement within the UN but there is now greater unity and purpose about what needs to happen to relieve the humanitarian crisis, and to start working towards the sustainable ceasefire that the British government has argued for.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 21 December 2023.

Explanation of vote by Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council meeting on Africa.

Thank you, President.

And I want to start by appreciating the role and the work of Ghana, Gabon, and Mozambique working with the African Union Commission in seeking to develop a framework for UN support to future African Union-led operations. And I think it goes without saying that the UK recognises the important role that African Union peace support operations can play in delivering peace and security in Africa.

The UK voted in favour of today’s resolution which represents a significant breakthrough.

As we look ahead, we recognise that more work will be needed to ensure that any future African Union-led operation can access the sustainable and predictable financing that it needs. And that requires clarity on financial and logistical burden-sharing arrangements between the UN, the African Union and other contributors – beyond elements for which contributors would already expect to receive reimbursement.

We also want to ensure that the UN Security Council, given its mandate for international peace and security, is fully involved and consulted from the outset in the development of any peace support operation. This will help us work hand-in-hand with the AU PSC to design accountable, effective and efficient missions of the future.

We very much look forward to working with Council colleagues in the coming months to cement today’s achievement and to ensure we have a workable framework that enables African Union-led peace support operations to meet the peace and security challenges faced in Africa and helps to silence the guns.

I thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 21 December 2023.

The UK’s Permanent Representative to the WTO and UN in Geneva, Simon Manley, spoke about the ITC at the World Trade Organization General Council (17-19 December 2023).

Item 22: International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO Report of the Joint Advisory Group (JAG) on its 57th Session

The ITC, what a terrific organisation it is. It is an organisation that delivers real impact across the developing world despite some very challenging circumstances – so we congratulate them on this report and the very successful JAG.

As I said at the JAG, we particularly appreciate the way that the ITC brings us close  to what actually works for businesses in the developing world, bringing commercial realism to our policy, and turning our policy into commercial reality on the ground. Our own trade partnerships programme, UKTP, with the ITC, helps us in the UK to understand what businesses need in order to take full advantage of our own, more generous, preferences scheme – the developing countries trading scheme. We were pleased to have more than doubled our funding to UKTP this year.

And we are of course extremely proud of the UK-ITC partnership on trade and gender – as I would say as Co-Chair of the informal working group – through the fabulous  SheTrades programme. Tackling gender inequality is at the very heart of our views as government on development and on trade, and we are delighted to see that programme progress.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 21 December 2023.

The Foreign Secretary will visit Al Arish as the UK continues to urge Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza through as many routes possible.

• Foreign Secretary to visit Al Arish to see first-hand the impact of lifesaving UK aid to the people of Gaza
• UK supporting delivery of humanitarian land corridor from Jordan into Gaza via Kerem Shalom crossing, with 750 tonnes of life-saving food aid arriving in the first delivery yesterday (20 December)
• Mark Bryson-Richardson announced as the Foreign Secretary’s Representative for Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, with a particular focus on the UK’s humanitarian effort in Gaza

The Foreign Secretary will see first-hand the impact of UK aid on a visit to Al Arish, near the Egypt-Gaza border today (21 December), as the UK calls for significant more aid to reach Gaza, through as many routes as possible.

David Cameron will meet with representatives from the Egyptian Red Crescent Society, who are coordinating the relief effort at the Rafah crossing, and hear how the UK’s contributions of shelter, blankets and other vital equipment has been providing much needed relief to the people of Gaza.

Together with international partners, the UK is increasing efforts to get greater humanitarian aid into Gaza. The UK will support United Nations World Food Programme to further enhance the new humanitarian land corridor from Jordan through Kerem Shalom.

The first direct World Food Programme aid convoy, made up of 46 trucks, travelled from Jordan to Gaza yesterday (20th December) carrying over 750 tonnes of food aid. A £2 million contribution from the UK will help to get further emergency food assistance to those who need it most.

We continue to urge Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza through Kerem Shalom and are exploring other routes to increase aid reaching Gaza, including maritime options.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron said:

The UK is committed to alleviating the suffering of people in Gaza. We have already trebled our aid commitment to Palestinians this year and the Prime Minister and I urged Israel at the highest levels to open Kerem Shalom in order to get significantly more aid into Gaza.

We need to use as many routes as possible to achieve this goal. We have supported Jordan to deliver a new humanitarian land corridor from Jordan into Gaza and continue to call for significantly more aid to be allowed into Gaza through Kerem Shalom.

I am delighted to appoint Mark Bryson-Richardson as the UK’s Humanitarian Representative. He is a highly skilled diplomat official with extensive experience working in the region and will drive forward this vital work.

The UK is stepping up its commitment for greater humanitarian aid and fuel to reach civilians in Gaza by appointing Mark Bryson-Richardson as the Foreign Secretary’s Representative for Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Mark is a former UK Ambassador to Iraq and previously headed the Department for International Development’s Middle East and North Africa Directorate and the cross-Government Stabilisation Unit.

So far, the UK has announced it will spend almost £60 million in additional humanitarian funding in Gaza, trebling our existing annual budget to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). UK aid will make a huge difference on the ground in Gaza, for example we will be providing coverage kits which are temporary shelters including plastic sheeting and blankets that are desperately needed in the harsh winter weather. The UK continues to reiterate the urgent need for more humanitarian pauses and sustained access for more aid and fuel to reach civilians in need.

The most recent package of £30 million funding, announced by the Foreign Secretary on his last visit to the region, has been allocated to trusted partners on the ground. This includes UNRWA, UNICEF, the OCHA Pooled Fund and the British Red Cross to support the Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent Societies, who are providing vital food, shelter and medical supplies.