Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of Argentina's acquisition of F-16 fighter aircraft.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Argentina's purchase of F-16 fighter jets does not change the UK Government's policies in relation to either Argentina or the Falkland Islands.
The UK is committed to upholding the Falkland Islanders' right of self-determination. As long as the Falkland Islanders wish to remain part of the UK family, there can be no discussions on sovereignty.
The UK undertakes regular assessments of possible threats so that our forces in the South Atlantic, which are entirely defensive, are maintained at the appropriate level to ensure the defence of the Falkland Islands.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he plans to support a third term for the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
FCDO Ministers will consider the UK position in advance of the upcoming election for the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority. The question of mineral-resources related activities in the seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction for the benefit of humankind is a critical one, and the outcome of this election will have wide significance.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of ratifying the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement is a major victory for ocean protection and multilateral diplomacy and underpins the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as the cornerstone of ocean governance. The Agreement means much greater protection for the two-thirds of the global ocean that lies beyond national jurisdiction. It will play a key role supporting the delivery of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, including helping to achieve the target to effectively conserve and manage at least 30 percent of the ocean by 2030. The UK played a significant and proactive role in achieving this success in over 10 years of negotiations and will continue to be proactive in preparing for implementation and entry into force and supporting other, particularly developing, countries, to do so. The UK continues to work at pace on the legislation and other measures needed to implement the Agreement and aims to implement and ratify in time for the UN Ocean Conference in June 2025 and will be in the forefront of the countries ratifying the treaty.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle famine in Tigray.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Across Tigray and other parts of northern Ethiopia, El Nino has caused drought that is affecting 4 million people. According to assessments from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, nearly 1.4 million people in Tigray will need immediate emergency food assistance because of drought. I witnessed firsthand the effects of this during my visit in February 2024. In response, I announced an additional £100 million to fund our Ending Preventable Deaths Programme, which will target three million people across Ethiopia including those who are most at risk in the northern regions. The UK also co-hosted a donor conference in Geneva on 16 April and successfully raised £610 million to meet humanitarian needs in Ethiopia.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what recent discussions he has had with his Senegalese counterpart.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Senegal's new Minister for African Integration and Foreign Affairs, Yassine Fall, took office on 11 April. I look forward to discussing our shared priorities with her and the new Senegalese government at the earliest opportunity, following our first UK-Senegal High Level Political Dialogue at which I hosted her predecessor in London in October last year. I also met Senegal's new Minister for Finance and Budget at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings last week.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what recent assessment he has made of the food security situation in East Africa; and what steps his Department is taking to alleviate the problems.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Food insecurity remains a huge challenge across East Africa. Tens of millions of people throughout the region face 'crisis' levels of food insecurity. The UK is leading efforts to address the crisis. The UK will deliver £89 million of aid to Sudan in 2024/2025, up from nearly £50 million in 2023/2024. On 16 April at a UK convened humanitarian pledging event I [Deputy Foreign Secretary] committed £100 million in aid to Ethiopia which will reach hundreds of thousands of people. Since 2019 the UK has allocated over £1 billion in humanitarian funding to East Africa benefitting millions of people.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what criteria his Department uses to determine whether it can enter into discussions on establishing potential asylum partnerships akin to the UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK is continuing to work with a range of international partners to tackle global illegal migration challenges. Our focus has been on passing the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which builds on the Illegal Migration Act, and putting plans in place to get flights off the ground as soon as possible to Rwanda.
A range of factors need to be taken into consideration for migration partnerships, including the human rights situation in the country.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether the Government will ensure that at least 30% of the future International Climate Finance commitment will be allocated to supporting nature’s recovery.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We are delivering on our current International Climate Finance commitment of £11.6 billion over five years from 2021/22 to 2025/26, including at least £3 billion to be spent on development solutions that protect and restore nature. The recently published Development White Paper includes a commitment to work globally to improve the quantity, quality and accessibility of climate and nature finance. Our own future funding commitments beyond 2025/26 will be agreed through the spending review process.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether he has made representations to the Kenyan Government on the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK is not a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. However, the UK condemns enforced disappearances and extra judicial killings, which are human rights violations that deny victims basic human rights under the law and Kenya's Constitution. We have raised these concerns with the Chair of the Kenyan Human Rights Parliamentary caucus.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, how many Ministerial visits have taken place to Southern African Development Community nations in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK recognises the important role the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has in relation to regional issues. I [Minister Mitchell] regularly discuss a range of issues, including peace and security and UK-SADC collaboration, with regional partners. In the past 12 months I have travelled to Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, DRC with plans to visit a further two SADC countries in the next 3 months and have also met with the region at World Bank Spring Meetings, AfDB annual meetings and the UN General Assembly.
The information requested on the previous 10 years is not held centrally by the Department and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the Department.