New alliance aims to bring the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector’s voice and expertise into national policy making.

Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Dr Augustine Mahiga. members of Parliament, officials of the Government of Tanzania, distinguished members of the Diplomatic Corps ladies and gentlemen, karibuni nyumbani kwa Balozi wa Uingereza, kusherehekea siku ya kuzaliwa kwa Malkia Elizabeth wa pili . Welcome to the British High Commissioner’s Residence, to celebrate the official birthday of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

Her Majesty is 91 years old this year. She continues to serve the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth with the same energy, commitment and sense of duty she has shown since her coronation over 60 years ago.

This Queen’s Birthday celebration reminds me that I have nearly reached a full year serving as British High Commissioner here in Tanzania.

Over that time, it has been an enormous pleasure to travel this beautiful country and see for myself the breadth and the strength of the UK’s partnership with Tanzania.

The UK is Tanzania’s largest foreign investor and second largest bilateral donor.

But I have realised in my short time here that there is much more to our partnership beyond these headlines.

In Kagera, I joined HE President Magufuli to lay the foundation stone for the school which UK aid is helping to rebuild after last year’s earthquake. Our ability to respond quickly and decisively is what sets us apart in responding to Tanzania’s needs.

In Arusha, I joined Filbert Bayi and other legendary athletes as the Queen’s Baton Relay visited Tanzania en route to next year’s Commonwealth Games. I hope we inspired some of the school children we met to become Tanzania’s athletes of the future.

In Tabora, I saw how the UK is supporting newly naturalised citizens and their host communities to build better lives. This is part of the UK’s wider commitment to support the refugee population here.

In Mwanza, I visited the National Institute for Medical Research which is conducting world class research on HIV/AIDS, in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical medicine.

And in Mufindi, I was proud to celebrate the contribution of the many British nationals living and working in Tanzania.

On behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, I presented one of our community, Geoff Fox, with the Member of the British Empire (or MBE) medal.

This honour was in recognition of his substantial charitable work for the local community. It was inspiring to witness Geoff’s passion and drive to change lives for the better.
And I know there are many other British Nationals doing similar work around the country.

I’ve also been inspired to see the drive and ambition of young Tanzanians throughout the country.

I’m delighted that we are joined tonight by members of the Department for International Development’s (DFID) Youth Advisory Panel.

They work with us to ensure that UK development programmes meet the needs of their generation.

And as I’ve travelled round the country, I have seen for myself how British companies are creating jobs, incomes and livelihoods here.

Their innovation and entrepreneurship is not only contributing to Tanzania’s industrialisation but is also providing essential services to ordinary Tanzanians.

I’m keen to encourage more British companies to invest here. So we will continue to support the Government to tackle corruption and create a level playing field. And we will continue to help the Government put in place the infrastructure, the skills and the predictable policy environment needed to attract investment.

So today is a celebration of Her Majesty’s Birthday, and also of the strength of the UK-Tanzania partnership.

And this is our chance to say thank you to all of you – our friends in Government, in business and in development – who make that partnership a reality.

This relationship, I hope, will be further strengthened in the months and years to come.

You may have wondered as you came in why we are flying the Commonwealth flag.

Well, next spring, Her Majesty will host the Commonwealth Summit at Buckingham Palace & Windsor Castle in the UK.

Leaders from 52 countries will reaffirm their commitment to working together to solve global challenges, through this unique and precious grouping of friends and allies.

The Summit will focus on improving trade flows, tackling shared security threats and building resilience in the face of climate change.

I know that these are all priority issues for His Excellency President Magufuli and I very much hope he will be able to join Her Majesty at the Summit.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to thank our sponsors, without whom this event would not have been possible.

Thank you to CMC Automobiles for exhibiting the Best of British here tonight, with 2 vehicles.

We have the Jaguar F Pace and, I’m delighted to say, the first reveal in Tanzania of the All New Land Rover Discovery.

Both vehicles are made in Britain and represent the Best of British engineering.

A big thank you goes to Serengeti Breweries for providing the beer and spirits you are enjoying this evening. The beers are locally made, bringing jobs to Tanzanians.

And thank you to our other sponsors who also represent the Best of British: BG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Ophir Energy, Songas, Standard Chartered Bank, Unilever and Vodacom.

Thank you all for helping to make this evening a real celebration.

And for keeping us safe tonight, I’d like to thank Ultimate Security and the Tanzanian Police Force.

So in conclusion, asenteni sana kwa kunisikiliza.

And thank you all for coming.

Thank you Mr. President.

And thank you Chef de Cabinet Viotti and Ambassador Chergui for your briefings.

The title of the document signed by the Secretary-General and the African Union Chairperson on the 19th of April is appropriately named a Framework for Enhanced Partnership. We welcome the strong signal of cooperation and coordination that this Framework brings and we support further efforts to strengthen the partnership on both sides.

Each challenge to peace and security that we face today has a unique combination of underlying factors. In Africa we have many good examples of international, regional and sub-regional organisations coming together in varied ways to tackle them.

In some instances, the United Nations is best placed to lead a response. For instance the Democratic Republic of Congo where MONUSCO has played a critical role in protecting civilians.

In others the African Union has taken the lead, critically in Somalia where for ten years AMISOM has played a vital role in degrading the threat from Al Shabaab. The bravery and sacrifice of AMISOM troops has created the security space for political progress to be made.

On other issues the sub-region has stepped up to find solutions as we saw with ECOWAS in Gambia, and as we look to IGAD to lead in South Sudan.

In some cases the solutions will evolve, as we saw in Mali and the Central African Republic where initial responses by regional and sub-regional organisations then transitioned into United Nations peacekeeping operations. In Somalia, the United Nations provides vital logistical support to an African Union operation. This flexibility in our partnership is essential to ensure the best response to crises.

In each case, and as the Council said in resolution 2320, we should consider the comparative advantage of each institution to ensure the most appropriate and effective response is deployed to resolve conflict and achieve stability.

In order to assess which solution is best for each situation, we must enhance our partnership.

This means more joint analysis, more joint planning, more joint assessments to form a common understanding of crisis and determine the optimal solution.

The recent work by both the United Nations and the African Union marks a new period of this partnership, and it’s imperative we find more and better ways of working together.

The African Union’s commitment to finance 25% of the African Union peace support operations budget is a welcome development and Dr. Kaberuka and his team have made significant strides in developing the roadmap to achieve this by 2020.

This work is a positive step towards greater African ownership of peace and security, and a deeper partnership with the United Nations.

We must continue to explore ways to make our joint efforts more systematic and we look forward to discussing this with the African Union Peace and Security Council during our visit to Addis Ababa in September.

We agree with the African Union report that in response to some of the most serious threats to peace and security, the deployment of African Union Peace Support Operations will be a key requirement and once again demonstrates the African Union’s comparative advantage to deploy where the United Nations cannot.

We should continue to look at how the United Nations can best support these missions to combine our strengths to bring about lasting solutions and peace on the African continent. This includes further consideration of options to provide reliable and sustainable funding for operations. But we must also focus on how we conduct those operations.

So in parallel we should examine joint standards for reporting, for accountability and for protection to ensure the highest standards and most robust oversight of missions to make them as effective as possible.

These issues will require further debate, and further joint work. We look forward to engaging with you all to strengthen and develop our partnership.

Thank you.

The Prime Minister spoke to a number of Gulf leaders this evening – the King of Saudi Arabia, the King of Bahrain, and the Emir of Qatar.

In each of the calls, the Prime Minister expressed thanks for messages of support and condolence following the recent terrorist attacks in Manchester and London, noting that radicalisation and extremist violence was a shared threat.

The Prime Minister raised the ongoing isolation of Qatar in the Gulf region, calling on all sides to urgently de-escalate the situation, engage meaningfully in dialogue, and restore Gulf Cooperation Council unity at the earliest possible opportunity.

The Prime Minister also noted that Qatar should continue to build on the progress it has already made to address the scourge of radicalisation and terrorism in the region, in partnership with its Gulf allies.

The Prime Minister spoke to Leo Varadkar on the phone earlier today to offer her congratulations on becoming Taoiseach.

The Taoiseach expressed his deepest sympathies for recent tragic events and said the thoughts of the Irish people were with the people of London at this time.

Both leaders agreed on the importance of continued cooperation between the 2 countries and the Prime Minister said she was personally committed to a close and special partnership with Ireland as the UK embarks on leaving the European Union.

They also spoke about a crucial need for the parties in Northern Ireland to come together to form a fully functioning Executive by 29 June and how both leaders would continue to engage closely on this important issue.

The Prime Minister also emphasised her steadfast commitment to the Belfast Agreement and its successors and the two leaders agreed to meet in person at the earliest possible opportunity.