Venezuela

Lord Robertson of Port Ellen Excerpts

Wednesday 7th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

It is not for me to say whether it is or not. My point is that it is for the United States to explain its actions and where it feels they sit within the context of international law. That is the position of our Government and of many of our allies in the European Union.

[Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Lab)]

I refer to the statement made the other night by European leaders in defence of the territorial integrity of Greenland. Clearly, NATO and its own integrity are of huge importance for the stability of the western hemisphere as a whole and, therefore, we must welcome the way in which European allies stood firm and were quite clear in the message that they gave.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I completely agree with my noble friend. The premise of the original Question encourages the Government to sanction the United States. Nobody would be more pleased than Vladimir Putin if the United Kingdom and the United States had that kind of fracture in our relationship. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves who stands for what in the world. We stand for international law and we condemn utterly what has happened in Ukraine. We know the difference; there is not a moral equivalence between what has happened in Caracas and what has been happening with the theft of children from Ukraine to Russia, the relentless bombing of infrastructure and civilians, and the destruction of energy infrastructure in the depths of winter in Ukraine.