British Embassy in Damascus
Debate between Baroness Chapman of Darlington and Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne
Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
I take my noble friend’s question as a note of encouragement to the Government to accelerate progress towards establishing a presence in Damascus and to go further than we already have in the relationship we are building with the new Government in Syria. I also thank him for his kind comments about the Prime Minister’s standing on the world stage; I think he is right.
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (Con)
While thanking the Minister for her helpful reply, may I ask her to consider maintaining the very strong embassy we have in Lebanon? At the moment, you go to Damascus, as I have done recently, through Lebanon. We have a magnificent Foreign Office team there, many of whom also served in Baghdad. This embassy is a very strong hub for all our Middle East work. Would the Minister consider continuing to strengthen that, despite the supposed weakness of FCDO funding, which we would all regret?
Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
As the noble Baroness said, we have an incredibly strong team in Lebanon, and it is important that that continues. The points she makes about the need for a regional approach, the instability we want to avoid and the importance of our presence across the region are well made; I take those and agree with her.