Belarus: Presidential Elections

Alyn Smith Excerpts

Thursday 24th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I thank my hon. Friend and pay tribute to him and the work of his Committee. I had a detailed discussion on this with Heiko Maas, my German opposite number, at Chevening, along with Jean-Yves Le Drian, my French opposite number. We have made it clear, as my hon. Friend will know, that we have our reservations and concerns about Nord Stream 2, both from the point of view of its encouraging European energy dependence on Russia, but also the impact on Ukraine. Equally, it is quite important, given the lead Germany has taken with Alexei Navalny and in relation to the work we need to do together on Belarus, that we maintain European solidarity. My hon. Friend’s points are well made and, of course, our European partners know the UK position.

[Alyn Smith (Stirling) (SNP)]

I thank the Foreign Secretary for advance sight of the statement, and I am pleased to commend him on the tone and content of it. It is important that we in this House are not ashamed to say that we stand united with the brave protesters in Belarus. Having said that, the statement includes a number of measures that I called for myself in the last FCDO questions, so it would be churlish not to support them now, and I am glad to see that progress.

I make only a couple of concrete points in relation to the statement. At FCDO questions last week, the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, the hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton), undertook to meet the Belarusian diaspora here in London. I am conscious that meeting has not happened yet because of diary pressures, but could I urge that that meeting be expedited? There are a lot of good ideas there.

I warmly support the triggering of the Moscow mechanism in the OSCE, but can the Foreign Secretary give us some indication of the timescale of that investigation, because there will be pressures for this to be a long-grass exercise, but I think this is rather more urgent and a quite straightforward investigation in practice. On the Magnitsky sanctions, I am very pleased to see the action in conjunction with the US and others, but does the Foreign Secretary share my disappointment at the lack of unanimity in the EU because of the Cypriot Government’s position, and will he express that disappointment and urge his counterparts in Cyprus to change their view?

A concerted effort is needed to support the Belarusian activists. The statement contained a nuanced approach, and the Foreign Secretary can rest assured of my party’s support for this approach going forward.

[Dominic Raab]

I thank the hon. Gentleman and welcome both the substance of what he said and the spirit of solidarity, which is now unbroken across the House. He asked about our reaching out to members of the Belarusian opposition and civil society. He is right, of course, that covid has restrained that a bit, although the Minister for Europe has spoken to two of the leading opposition figures, and therefore we do provide that support in principle, but also in practice.

The hon. Gentleman rightly asked about the timeframe for the OSCE investigation. It will want to proceed as expeditiously as possible. We want that conclusion. I think it is quite important for the international community as a whole to be able to support action to see an independent international investigation under the auspices of the very well regarded and respected OSCE. At the same time, I want to give it the time and space to do its job properly, because its credibility also rests on that. I therefore do not have a specific deadline that it has been set, but he makes a sensible point about time.

I share the hon. Gentleman’s concern about the lack of a common position in the EU. We hope that it will arrive at that. We have certainly encouraged it; we have been on the ambitious end in those discussions. But of course one of the advantages that we have as we leave, with the Magnitsky sanctions in place, is that we are not limited or fettered by that. That is why, at the same time as welcoming and working with our European partners, we are in a position with our American and Canadian friends to proceed with the Magnitsky sanctions, which we will do as soon as possible.