Taiwan

Lord Rogan Excerpts

Thursday 17th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I agree with the noble Baroness about the vibrancy of the democracy. My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary congratulated the president on her election at the time. I share the noble Baroness’s concern: whether we are talking about Taiwan or Hong Kong or mainland China, these are deeply concerning issues and we continue to raise them bilaterally, and where necessary in multilateral fora, to ensure that the issues can be addressed quite directly.

[Lord Rogan (UUP) [V]]

My Lords, I am sure that the whole House is united in its condemnation of China’s incursions into Taiwanese airspace, which are clearly acts of provocation. Have Her Majesty’s Government made their opposition to these actions clear to the Chinese ambassador in London? What consideration has been given to supporting Taiwan in strengthening its military defences as a means of demonstrating our revulsion at Beijing’s arrogant aggression?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I can reassure the noble Lord on any attempt to impact the status quo. I say again what I said before: the issue of Taiwan is one to be settled peacefully for both sides. It is important for China to sustain and retain its objective of settling any disputes with Taiwan in a peaceful manner and in the interests of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Lord Mayor’s Show: Taiwan

Lord Rogan Excerpts

Wednesday 1st May 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

I think in this case—or indeed in any other case where we are dealing with the private sector—our job is to provide advice. It is for a private sector company or an independent organisation to take a decision. That is one of the key freedoms we enjoy as a democracy, and I would stand up for it. It is for organisations to make independent decisions. As far as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is concerned, it will give the best advice available.

[Lord Rogan (UUP)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as vice-chair of the British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group. On 31 March, two J-11 fighter jets of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army intentionally crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, intruding upon a maritime boundary which both sides have abided by for many years, and as a result damaged the cross-strait status quo. It is evident that regional peace and stability are at stake. Does the Minister agree that decisions such as that of the lord mayor’s office are less than helpful to the Taiwanese position?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

As I have already made clear, it is important that the Taiwanese and Chinese Governments continue to negotiate and to discuss matters of a bilateral nature. On the more general point the noble Lord makes about the Lord Mayor’s Show, I have already emphasised that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was very clear that in previous years Taiwan has attended the Lord Mayor’s Show and it was its view that that should continue to be the case.

Asset Freezing (Compensation) Bill [HL]

Lord Rogan Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard) : House of Lords
Friday 27th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rogan (UUP)]

My Lords, I support my noble friend Lord Empey and his Bill, which seeks to release these frozen assets. As has been said, the Gaddafi regime supplied the IRA with weaponry in the early 1970s and in the mid-1980s. The quantities were vast and, as a result, the IRA was able to escalate its campaign of violence. As part of these shipments, in the early 1980s the IRA acquired supplies of Czech-made Semtex from Libya. According to the journalist Toby Harnden, from late 1986 to 2011,

“virtually every bomb constructed by the Provisional IRA”,

and splinter groups such as the Real IRA,

“has contained Semtex from a Libyan shipment unloaded at an Irish pier in 1986”.

As someone who lived in Northern Ireland through that period, it is sobering to think that so much of the death and destruction unleashed on our streets came from one source—Libya. The biggest arms shipment arrived on a beach in County Wicklow in late 1986 and consisted of 80 tonnes of weaponry, including seven rocket-propelled grenades, 10 surface-to-air missiles and a tonne of Semtex plastic explosive. That shipment was the fourth landed in a 14-month period and would transform the IRA’s ability to conduct its terrorist campaign. Untold suffering was caused by the weapons supplied by Gaddafi. The dead are mourned to this day, and many more still carry the physical and mental scars inflicted by murderous terrorists at the behest of a tyrant.

It is little short of a national scandal that British victims of Gaddafi’s weaponry should be reduced to virtually begging their Government for justice. As a result of Lockerbie and other terrorist outrages, the Americans, Germans and French all secured compensation for their citizens who suffered as a result of Libyan-supplied weaponry. That situation merely highlights all the more starkly the failure of successive British Governments to secure similar deals for our citizens. Why should our people be less favourably treated than American, French and German citizens? Surely British Governments—of whatever political complexion—should be standing up for the rights and interests of British citizens.

Suspicions have been raised that, when Tony Blair was Prime Minister and Libya was being brought in from the cold, a secret deal was done whereby the UK would not pursue compensation. It has also been suggested that the desire to secure oil took precedence over the need to secure a measure of justice and compensation for victims. Of course, this is not the only secret deal which Mr Blair has been associated with when it comes to Northern Ireland. Noble Lords will recall the shameful on-the-run letters of comfort, which were distributed to more than 200 republican terrorist suspects, and which are effectively “stay out of jail free” cards. These items were part of a secret deal between Tony Blair and Sinn Fein/IRA. The fact that many were handed out by Gerry Kelly—a man convicted of bombing the Old Bailey in March 1973—merely compounds the insult to the victims.

My noble friend Lord Empey has been tenacious in his pursuit of this issue and he deserves a great deal of credit for his efforts to raise the profile of the Libyan connection to terrorism and to ensure that victims can see that Parliament has not forgotten them and is still seeking a measure of justice for them. As he said, he has been writing to the UK Government about Gaddafi and Libya since 2002. In all those years, he has never heard a coherent explanation for the failure of Her Majesty’s Government to get compensation for UK citizens for all the damage that Gaddafi did as a result of supplying the IRA with weapons, money and training for over 20 years.

Last year he brought a Private Member’s Bill before Parliament but, unfortunately, it ran out of time. He has now reintroduced it and has my wholehearted support. Quite simply, the average person in the street will find it incomprehensible that Libya has £9.5 billion in frozen assets in London alone. Is it not reasonable to want some of that to go towards helping the many who have suffered greatly as a result of Gaddafi’s Semtex and other weaponry, which was placed into the hands of terrorists and psychopaths? In all the talk of rights, the great and the good seem to be excessively reluctant to lift a finger to help people who suffered terribly as a result of this. Many of the events took place over 30 years ago and time is running out for the victims. Soothing words from the Government and officialdom are simply not enough. We must persevere to raise the profile of this issue and continue to seek justice for the individual victims and the UK as a whole for the huge damage done by Gaddafi. For me this is about fairness and justice. It is about doing the right thing. Once again, I commend my noble friend Lord Empey for his determined effort in this regard and I assure him and the House that he has my and the Ulster Unionist Party’s full support.

Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

Lord Rogan Excerpts

Thursday 8th September 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rogan]

My Lords, I join in congratulating the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, on initiating this timely and important debate. As I begin, if I may interject a light note, the noble Lord, Lord Roberts of Llandudno, in his somewhat musical address, alluded to the fact that the Welsh have harps and the Scots have pipes; he omitted to say that we Irish have drums.

While your Lordships’ House may still be reeling from the ramifications of the Parliament Act 1911, it is fair to say that 1911 was not a year without merit. As today’s debate notes, it is the centenary year of the formation of the Empire Parliamentary Association, from which today's Commonwealth Parliamentary Association traces its lineage. It is also the centenary of King George V's visit to Ireland, a royal occasion which was not to be repeated until Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s highly successful recent visit to the Republic of Ireland, as the noble Lord, Lord Anderson of Swansea, mentioned. Those are two centenaries, marking two defining moments for the Crown and the Commonwealth, and two institutions with which our nearest neighbour in the Republic of Ireland may be redefining its relationship. I will return to that theme later.

I should like to place on record my appreciation and thanks for the often unsung work of the CPA and the wider Commonwealth, a not inconsequential network of nations which encompasses some 2 billion persons. I believe wholeheartedly in the Commonwealth, not just for its historical ties that bind our countries together but for its ongoing work bringing pressure to bear in the pursuit of democracy and the protection of human rights throughout the world.

People often question the relevance and the impact of the Commonwealth in the modern day. It would be fair to say that, as an organisation, it has struggled somewhat to profile its work effectively, be that because some sections of the chattering classes will not have anything to do with the age of empire or because, on occasion, it has found itself travelling at the slowest pace among its disparate membership. Nevertheless, for all that, the Commonwealth remains highly relevant today, retaining the ability to do much good both at home and abroad. A greater appreciation and knowledge of the Commonwealth would foster a greater appreciation and understanding of multicultural Britain. It would help our people view the world beyond the confines of the developed West and allow them to have a more global perspective and insight on global problems.

As the economies of western Europe and North America face the unhappy prospect of a lost decade, the Commonwealth has the scope and the opportunity to encourage more adventurous trade links, not least with the emerging markets on the Indian sub-continent. As we go forward to the next century, does the Commonwealth have a role? Certainly it does. Does it have the ability to carve out an enhanced purpose and role for the future? Absolutely it does.

As I noted at the start of my remarks, 2011 is a year of two centenaries: the formation of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s predecessor and the visit of King George V to Ireland. Her Majesty's recent visit to that country has laid one ghost to rest; but perhaps there is now a case and an opportunity to settle another historical fracture. As was said earlier in the debate, Ireland left the Commonwealth in 1949. A return would be a final reconciliation in Anglo-Irish relations and an acknowledgement of the historical ties that link these two close islands and neighbours. Undertaking such a project would be a fitting start to a new “century of excellence”.