Tag: Foreign Office

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 30 March 2023.

UK Defence Minister Baroness Goldie has celebrated the UK and Malaysia’s historical defence relationship and close ties during visit to Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Baroness Goldie met with Malaysian Defence Minister Dato’ Seri Utama Haji Mohamad bin Haji Hasan on 28 March in Kuala Lumpur. Congratulating the minister on his appointment in December, they discussed the deepening of bilateral cooperation and Defence ties through Five Power Defence Arrangements.

Reinforcing the UK’s commitment to the region, the ministers also discussed the UK’s recent Integrated Review Refresh and how the AUKUS agreement will support regional stability.

Malaysia and the UK are both members of the Five Powers Defence Arrangements (FPDA), now in its 52nd year. Founded in 1971, the FPDA is a series of agreements between Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the UK, with the group seeking to strengthen defence and security in the Indo-Pacific and work together to promote stability in the region.

Baroness Goldie also visited the FPDA’s military headquarters at RMAF Butterworth in Penang – the Headquarters Integrated Area Defence System (HQIADS). During her visit she met with UK personnel deployed there, discussing the FPDA and our common ambitions.

Following her visit to HQIADS, the Minister paid her respects to all those fallen, laying a wreath at the Commonwealth War Grave Commission (CWGC) Cemetery in Taiping. The CWGC work tirelessly to maintain cemeteries around the world to ensure that the fallen will always be appropriately remembered.

Baroness Goldie also visited Sapura Group, in support of their UK partner TriCIS, where a wide range of issues were addressed. This afforded a stimulating, insightful and very enjoyable exchange of views on cyber communications and security.

UK Defence Minister, Baroness Goldie, said:

I am delighted to have visited Malaysia and have the great privilege to meet Malaysia Defence Minister Dato’ Seri Utama Haji Moohamad bin Haji Hasan. During my visit we discussed our strong defence partnership and the ambition for the UK and Malaysia to collaborate further in support of regional peace and security.

Baroness Goldie discussed the UK’s enduring commitment to the Indo-Pacific and regional peace and security during her visit. The UK government looks forward to further strengthening ties with Malaysia.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 30 March 2023.

This partnership between the UK and Solomon Islands Parliaments will strengthen the financial work of Parliamentary standing committees.

Led by Lord Bruce UK Parliament and Francisca Gale, clerk to the Tynwald, a delegation from the Westminster Foundation for Democracy visited Honiara to continue work with the National Parliament of Solomon Islands on Parliamentary oversight of the budget.

This partnership between the UK and Solomon Islands Parliaments will strengthen the financial work of Parliamentary standing committees. The visiting delegation held sessions on financial management with members of the Public Accounts Committee, the Public Expenditure Committee and staff of the National Parliament.

Speaking at the launch event at Heritage Park Hotel, British High Commissioner to Solomon Islands and Nauru, His Excellency Thomas Coward said:

I am proud of this partnership between the Parliaments of Solomon Islands and the UK. Democracy needs continual improvement and renewal to thrive. Through this partnership we can work together on this, whilst strengthening the deep historic links and personal friendships between our two countries.

The partnership also marks the Westminster Foundation for Democracy’s first engagement in Solomon Islands and in the Pacific region. WFD is the UK public body dedicated to strengthening democracy around the world.

WFD Programme Manager in-country, Brian Titus Leafasia said:

The workshops held by WDF were part of the Solomon Islands National Parliament and UK Parliament partnership around public finance management, mainly on enhancing and strengthening transparency and accountability through partnerships. The Public Accounts Committee and Public Expenditure Committee and the Parliament staff play a major role in this partnership programme.

Team leader of the visiting team to Honiara, Rt. Hon. Lord Bruce said:

What we love doing really is sharing experiences including our mistakes as well as our successes with other people in the hope that can all improve the quality of our democracy and the relationship between the people, the parliament and the government and that means the role of financial accountability, the functioning of committees that sort of thing.

The WDF team left Honiara on Sunday 26 March 2023.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 30 March 2023.

UK Minister for Indo-Pacific visits Philippines to launch development partnership, strengthen maritime engagement.

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

Statement by Ambassador James Kariuki to the UN General Assembly following the adoption of a resolution requesting an Advisory Opinion on Member States’ climate change obligations from the International Court of Justice.

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

Statement by Political Coordinator Fergus Eckersley at the UN Security Council briefing on the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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

FCDO statement on the Myanmar military’s decision to dissolve the National League for Democracy and other democratic political parties.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said:

The Myanmar military regime’s decision to dissolve 40 political parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, is a further assault on the rights and freedoms of the Myanmar people.

There can be no solution to the crisis created by the military regime without meaningful, inclusive dialogue, which respects the people’s democratic wishes.

We condemn the military regime’s politically motivated actions and their use of increasingly brutal tactics to sow fear and repress opposition. The UK will continue working with partners to pressure the regime to end all violence and create space for meaningful and inclusive dialogue. We reiterate our support for the people of Myanmar and their aspirations for an inclusive and democratic future.

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

UK military advisor, Ian Stubbs, says the staggering casualties suffered by Russia around Bakhmut have had significant impact on personnel and munition stocks.

Thank you, Mr Chair and welcome Deputy Minister of Defence Galić to this Forum. Mr Chair, I would like to start by thanking you and your team for your stewardship over the past trimester. It is nearly 400 days since Russia’s barbaric and illegal invasion of Ukraine. Since then, we have seen the extraordinary determination of the Ukrainian people as they defend their homeland. With support from their partners, Ukraine has shown that agility and ingenuity can have a devastating effect against a so-called super power.

In recent weeks, the staggering casualties suffered by Russia around Bakhmut appear to have had significant impact. Their assault seemingly stalled, reports suggest that the Russian military and Wagner group urgently need to replenish personnel and munition stocks. Approximately 30,000 Russian fighters have been killed or wounded since the battle for Bakhmut began nine months ago, with the Wagner-dominated force advancing just 25km in this time.

Mr Chair, try as they might to present an alternate reality to the ground truth with an increasingly ridiculous carpet of disinformation, the astounding levels of incompetence in Russia’s military leadership that have eroded Russia’s military reputation are clear for all to see.

In February, ahead of the 14th Aero India biennial air show, the Director of the Russian Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, Dmitry Shugayev, stated that the “special military operation provided foreign experts with an opportunity to see Russian military products in use in actual combat conditions, convincing them of their high technical performance and reliability”. In the same week, Russian Soviet made MT-LB multipurpose tracked armoured vehicles were observed operating in eastern Ukraine modified with old naval turrets and guns, still painted in naval colours. These Stalin era naval weapon systems, 60-year-old T-62 main battle tanks and vintage BTR-50 armoured personnel carriers that Russia is operating in Ukraine are indeed a true demonstration of the type of “high technical performance” for which Russia’s military and defence industry are now regarded.

In contrast, the UK has provided sophisticated artillery and air defence systems, and modern anti-tank munitions to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s brutal and indiscriminate attacks. The UK was the first nation to pledge modern main battle tanks to Ukraine – and we are grateful to all our Allies who have now done likewise.  These Challenger 2 MBTs are a step change in capability for Ukraine’s Armed Forces, equipped with some of the most modern and sophisticated gunnery systems in the world.

Mr Chair, for well over a year now, our Russian colleagues have attempted to use this forum to distract from failures on the battlefield with a campaign of lies, threats and propaganda. When this has not worked, they have become increasingly contemptuous of this Forum, belligerent towards the Chair, and threatening towards fellow delegates – such behaviour is a tacit sign of weakness. Russia’s decision to block the Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC) agenda and your Security Dialogue last week because you would not cede to its attempts to negotiate by ultimatum, was a deplorable example of its attempts to undermine the principles under which we meet in this Chamber.

Against such behaviour, we must do our upmost to ensure the integrity of this Forum, such that it is able to fulfil its mandate. Russia has attempted to break the foundations of European security, violated the UN Charter, and flagrantly disregarded the Helsinki Final Act’s core principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the non-use of force. However, we have shown that these principles, and this Forum, matter. We will stand up to defend them both.

The UK looks forward to working with the incoming Bulgarian Chair in what will clearly continue to be a challenging time for the FSC, the OSCE and European security writ large. We also thank Belgium who leave the troika and welcome our Canadian colleagues.

Mr Chair, on a final note, the UK condemns in the strongest terms Putin’s recent announcement on the planned stationing of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. The nuclear rhetoric and signalling that we have seen from Russia is irresponsible. Russia should seek to reduce tensions and the risk of miscalculation, not increase them. We again call on the Belarusian regime to desist from supporting Russia’s attempts to stoke further instability in the region and stop its support of Russia’s illegal invasion.

Mr Chair, Ukraine has turned the tide in this war, regaining territory and liberating thousands of Ukrainian people. Ukraine has done this thanks to the awe-inspiring bravery of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the resilience of the Ukrainian people and strong international support. This must remain at the forefront of our minds and efforts into the next trimester. Together, with our Allies and partners, we will ensure that Ukraine will win.

Thank you.

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

Joint statement on Item 8: the situation of Ukrainian mayors. Delivered by UK’s Ambassador to the WTO and UN in Geneva, Simon Manley, at Human Rights Council.

I deliver this statement on behalf of a group of countries. The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action emphasizes the international community’s dismay at the use of summary and arbitrary executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture.

Reports of Ukrainian civilians being detained arbitrarily by Russia’s forces are shocking, and numerous. According to these reports, civilians often face inhuman or degrading treatment, torture and inadequate conditions.

Russia has systematically gone after prominent members of local communities in every Ukrainian territory it has attempted to illegally annex. This is part of Russia’s strategy to suppress dissent and to assert its control by menacing the local population. Those taken include journalists, activists, religious officials and local leaders.

Today we want to focus on the mayors of towns and cities Russia has attempted to illegally annex. At least 30 mayors have been detained since the start of the invasion on the 24 February 2022. At least six remain in Russia’s custody.

Ihor Kolykhaiev, Mayor of Kherson was taken by Russia’s forces in June 2022. Since then, his family has relied on testimony from other detainees, upon their release, to hear news of his condition.

He is not alone. A similar fate befell mayors Oleksandr Babych, Yevhenii Matvieiev, Volodymyr Karaberov, Serhii Khilchenko, all reportedly taken into Russia’s custody and detained between March and June 2022. Russia has still not confirmed their whereabouts, and their families have received no information on their wellbeing. The family of Volodymyr Mykolayenko, taken in April 2022, know that he is being held in Russia, but have not been told why, or where.

The international community will not ignore violations of international law, including arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances. Russia must confirm who it is holding, where, and why. It must cease committing enforced disappearances and release all who have been detained in contravention of international law. And it must respect all of its commitments under the VDPA [The Vienna Declaration and Program of Action].

Statement delivered by Ambassador Manley on behalf of 40 countries:

UK, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, New Zealand, Australia, North Macedonia, Georgia, Albania. Canada, USA, Iceland, Ukraine, Japan and Moldova.

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

Emma Logan (UK Delegation) condemns Russia’s sustained pattern of malicious cyber behaviour against the UK and our partners.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As we have heard today, threats in cyberspace are evolving and can take many forms.

We continue to see a sustained pattern of malicious cyber behaviour by the Russian state, and by cyber criminals allowed to operate from Russian territory with impunity, against the UK and our friends and partners.

Threat to Ukraine

This pattern of malicious cyber behaviour includes a long-running campaign of hostile and destabilising activity against Ukraine, the tempo of which increased significantly in the run up to and immediately following Russia’s illegal invasion on 24 February 2022.

Together with partners, we have exposed multiple instances of malicious cyber activity by Russia, including the deployment of malware against the Ukrainian banking sector on 15 and 16 February 2022, and an attack on a communications company on the 24 February that caused outages for several thousand Ukrainian customers, with tens of thousands of terminals damaged, rendered inoperable and irreparable.

In addition to harming their intended targets, these incidents have had wider destabilising consequences – affecting ordinary people and businesses across the OSCE region. For example, the 24 February attack affected windfarms in one country and internet users across Europe.

In addition, the Kremlin continues to use information operations to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty, create false pretexts and obscure the truth. It regularly uses propaganda and disinformation to sustain its support base, attack rivals, and erode international support for Ukraine. Georgia and Moldova are among the states suffering on the frontline from these underhand tactics.

Threat to the UK

Even before it launched its illegal invasion of Ukraine, we judged Russia posed a significant, enduring, and direct cyber threat to the UK.

Our National Cyber Security Centre has confirmed that Russian cyber actors have conducted a malign programme of activity in recent years, including attempted interference against our media, telecommunications, and energy infrastructure.

This threat has not changed significantly since the start of its invasion, but Russia’s risk appetite has grown significantly.

UK response

As was made clear by our recent Integrated Review Refresh, the UK is working with our partners to meet these challenges head on and to hold the perpetrators to account.

Public attribution

We have publicly attributed malicious cyber activity to Russia where we have had compelling evidence to do so and it was in our national interest. I have already given some examples, related to Ukraine, but there are others. For example, in April 2021 we attributed the SolarWinds compromise to Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, the SVR. This forms part of a pattern of behaviour ongoing since 2011, predominantly aimed at overseas governmental, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets for intelligence purposes.

Sanctions

We have also used our cyber sanctions regime to impose a direct cost on those responsible for malicious cyber activity. For example, together with partners we have imposed asset freezes and travel bans against members of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU’s, destructive cyber unit.

Resilience

As outlined in our National Cyber Strategy, the UK will continue to strengthen our cyber resilience.

Support to partners

And importantly, we also will continue to support our partners to build their own resilience.

For example, we announced a £6.35 million package of cyber support to Ukraine last year, including the provision of daily cyber threat intelligence and technical assistance to the MFA to protect their websites from Distributed Denial of Service attacks.

Lastly, on disinformation, we have established a new directorate in our Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to build our capability to assess and respond to the hostile manipulation of information. And we have committed to provide additional funding to the BBC World Service to counter disinformation.

Mr. Chair, not only must Russia withdraw its troops from Ukraine and end its brutal and illegal war, it must act as a responsible actor in cyberspace, and refrain from spreading dangerous disinformation. The UK will continue to do everything we can to protect ourselves and our partners from these threats and we would welcome further discussion on these topics in the OSCE Security Committee as the threats remain live.

Thank you.

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

Eight innovative projects that contribute to climate change mitigation have been selected to participate in the second phase of the Climate Finance Accelerator.

The program, funded by the Government of the United Kingdom, will support the selected projects to strengthen their proposals and attract investment from Peruvian and international financiers.

The projects in this second CFA cohort come from a variety of sectors including waste management, energy, sustainable agriculture, among others. For example, some of them aim to implement solar panel boats for river traffic in the Amazon, responsible waste management in the construction sector, regeneration of used clays, among others.

A key barrier to climate action is the limited supply of projects capable of attracting the financing and investment needed to implement large-scale solutions. Projects will receive

The technical assistance provided focuses on identifying their financial needs such as the combination of financing from public and private sources, structuring their bankable financial model and presentation materials.

The advice also seeks to improve the business model in areas like gender inclusion and social equality. Once funded, the projects will benefit communities throughout Peru through pollution reduction, employment opportunities, energy access, water conservation, and support for gender equality and social inclusion efforts.

UK Ambassador to Peru, Gavin Cook, stated:

I’m delighted to join these eight exciting projects at the start of their CFA Peru journey. Their innovative ideas and approaches really showcase how the private sector is helping to tackle the climate emergency in Peru and we’re excited to partner.

The CFA’s technical and financial experts will help them develop to get the investment that will drive not just their projects, but wider social impact. The lessons we learn will also help the Peruvian government and private sector generate capital flows for the future. I can’t wait to hear how they get on.

By bringing together stakeholders who can develop and finance climate projects at scale, the CFA will support Peru’s efforts to meet the priorities set out in its Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement.

The project is led in Peru by Libélula. Program leader in Peru, Katherine Bocanegra, Libelula’s Head of Projects added:

The CFA Program is a great opportunity to continue building the portfolio of sustainable and bankable projects that reduce carbon emissions in Peru. We are very excited about the results we will obtain at the end of this second phase, the projects are increasingly promising and we will do everything we can to help them access the financing they need.

The eight projects selected for this second phase are:

1. QUIASA Consulting SRL: Quiasa Consulting is a company that develops solutions in the oil sector with the objective of expanding the regeneration system of activated clays used in the edible oil industry, by the boil off method, for its reuse and also to obtain the residual oil by-product, which will be used as raw material for the Peruvian biofuel market.
2. RONAP: Digital connectivity in real time to promote initiatives that raise the value of the forest, linking consumers, with a commitment to climate change, in order to make them participants in the conservation and recovery of forests, strengthening the relationship of producers/gatherers, their families and context with the biodiversity of the Amazonian ecosystems.
3. Cartonorte EIRL: Replacing wooden crates from the indiscriminate felling of trees with biodegradable recyclable cardboard boxes for the transport of fruit harvested in the central jungle.
4. Kara Solar Foundation: A consortium to promote solar-powered river transportation. Kara Solar, the Ecuador-Peru Binational Plan and the Conservation Strategy Fund seek to massify this transportation and energy model in the Peruvian Amazon to promote sustainable development and create a concrete response to deforestation. We will focus on the implementation of technology, training, and financial tools.
5. SINBA: sinba is a socio-environmental company and Certified B Company founded in Lima, Peru in 2016, whose purpose is to co-create a #waste-free world, where nothing is left over and no one is left over. We recover organic waste and turn it into animal feed and fertilizers, in addition to recovering recyclable materials. Through the circular economy we reduce GHG emissions from waste by 90%, in addition to providing low-carbon raw materials for local industries.
6. CICLO: We increase the sustainability indicators of companies in the construction sector with 2 lines of business: the integrated management of construction waste (CDW) and the sale of eco-materials that we manufacture from the recycling of this waste.
7. Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Alto Mayo: The project consists of using coffee waste (Cascarilla) for the production and commercialization of organic fertilizers and coffee briquettes; as well as processing and commercializing soluble coffee with a new brand, located in the provinces of Moyobamba (San Martín and Jaén (Cajamarca).
8. Bioenergy Perú SAC: Bioenergy seeks financing to increase its production capacity (CAPEX) by increasing its monthly production capacity from 2,500 MT to 4,000 MT through the acquisition of equipment, as well as the increase of working capital to acquire larger volumes of raw material.