Bosnia and Herzegovina: Rule of Law

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My Lords, we remain absolutely united with our Quint colleagues, with whom both officials and Ministers have maintained regular engagement on Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Foreign Secretary, Dame Karen and Minister Doughty continue to raise our concerns about the situation there in their engagement with regional partners, including Croatia and Serbia.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, the future of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the western Balkans is critical to the future of the United Kingdom’s interests for national security, especially in the context of Russian interference, organised crime and migration. The UK has supported the efforts against Russian interference through the £30-million western Balkans freedom and resilience programme, which is coming to an end next year. It involves 20 local civil society organisations and is on the front line of all this work. It is funded through official development assistance, so I make this appeal to the Minister. When decisions are being made to reduce ODA, which we on these Benches think is regrettable, can there be a specific carve-out for areas linked to the future interests of British national security?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right: our review will be absolutely focused on the UK’s national interest, and the decision was made on the basis of the first duty of any Government to protect their population.

We have been engaged across a wide range of areas in the development and soft power space to contribute to peace and stability in the western Balkans—and Bosnia-Herzegovina specifically. Our development efforts have never been solely about aid. We mobilise a range of resources to achieve our development objectives in the western Balkans and we will continue to do that, influencing policy.