The Foreign Office Minister for Asia and the Pacific Minister Mark Field will today (18 January) begin a two day visit to New York, where he will represent the UK at the UN Security Council. On Thursday he will deliver a statement on counter-proliferation and on Friday attend the council meeting on Afghanistan.
During his visit the Minister will also meet with the Afghanistan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, host a meeting on climate change with Commonwealth countries and meet with representatives from the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Speaking ahead of his visit Minister Field said;
The UK remains committed to a world without nuclear weapons. We believe the best way to achieve this goal is through gradual multilateral disarmament, negotiated step-by-step, within existing frameworks.
With our international partners we must continue to prevent proliferation and must hold to account states that breach our rules.
On the Afghanistan meeting the Minister said;
Afghanistan is making real progress in overcoming many challenges. However, there is still work to be done to help Afghanistan’s government and people achieve their goal of building a more stable and prosperous country.
The UK continues to play our part in supporting this goal. We have committed up to £750 million for the four years up to 2020 to support the Afghan Government’s work to improve security, reduce poverty, and increase access to health and education.
This UN Security Council meeting will be a chance to, collectively and individually, express our full support for the efforts of the Afghan government to take forward a peace process, which will be vital for Afghanistan’s long term stability.
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