Tag Archives: HM Government

Thank you, Emmanuel.

As you have said the UK and France work side by side together in so many different areas, from our bilateral trading relationship worth £69 billion, to our tourist industries, where British and French people are intrinsically linked, forming the single largest groups of visitors to each other’s countries.

But nowhere is our cooperation closer than in the area of defence and security, with British and French fighter pilots flying alongside one another and in each other’s planes over Syria and Iraq to strike Daesh at its heart, or our troops deployed together in Estonia to provide reassurance to our eastern allies in the face of Russian aggression.

Just this month, cooperation between our 2 countries has led to the seizure of £65 million worth of drugs in the Indian Ocean, with UK and French naval officers working together on HMS Monmouth to intercept an illegal haul.

This is our close and deep relationship in action.

As you have said our discussions today have focused on the greatest security challenge our 2 countries face – tackling terrorism and rooting out the extremism that fuels it.

Both our countries have sadly experienced the horrors of terrorism all too recently.

I offer our heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the 3 innocent French victims killed in the terrible attack in London last week.

It shows so painfully how these attacks are not attacks on one place but on us all. A British man, Nick Alexander, of course also tragically died in the Bataclan attack in Paris in November 2015.

I know you stand with us against this evil.

And tonight, President Macron and I will join the England and French football teams and the fans at the Stade de France to honour the victims of the London Bridge attack.

In the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks, the England and French teams paid tribute at Wembley Stadium to all those who lost their lives. Our visit to the Stade de France tonight will be a similar show of solidarity against terrorism and extremism.

The counter-terrorism cooperation between our intelligence agencies is already strong, but President Macron and I agree that more should be done to tackle the terrorist threat online.

As I have said before, in the UK we are already working with social media companies to halt the spread of extremist material and poisonous propaganda that is warping young minds. But we know they need to do more.

And today we can announce that the UK and France will work together to encourage corporations to do more and abide by their social responsibility to step up their efforts to remove harmful content from their networks.

We are launching a joint UK-French campaign to ensure that the internet cannot be used as a safe space for terrorists and criminals, and that it cannot be used to host the radicalising material that leads to so much harm.

We will lead joint work with the tech companies on this vital agenda, including working with them to develop tools to identify and remove harmful material automatically. We will press them to urgently establish the industry-led forum we agreed at the G7 summit last month, to develop shared technical and policy solutions to tackle terrorist content on the internet.

Crucially, our campaign will also include exploring creating a legal liability for tech companies if they fail to take the necessary action to remove unacceptable content.

The Home Secretary and the French Interior Minister will meet in the coming days to drive forward this important work.

We are united in our total condemnation of terrorism and our commitment to stamp out this evil.

Finally on Brexit we have been very clear that we want to maintain a close relationship and a close partnership with the EU and individual member states into the future, including the areas we discussed this evening.

And I confirmed to President Macron that the timetable remains on course and will begin next week.

So, thank you, Emmanuel, for our very constructive discussions this evening.

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Mr. President,

I’d like to thank Mr Zuev and Ms Ochoa for their vivid briefings and I want to particularly thank you for bringing this issue before the whole of the Council. It’s an issue that we seldom discuss, but it has an impact on conflict after conflict ever since the United Nations came into existence. Sadly those impacts are still being felt in too many places today.

To simply treat this as another issue on our agenda would be a mistake. Anti-personnel landmines are nothing short of indiscriminate killers. They don’t recognise sides in conflicts. They recognise no age or affiliation. I am proud to represent a country that wants to see an anti-personnel mine-free world. In 1995, our predecessors sat round this table and unanimously adopted a resolution recognising the global threat posed by those devices. At the time, we focused on Rwanda and a select group of countries. Two years later Princess Diana walked the streets of Kuito, Angola, greeting children affected by the scourge of landmines. She spoke with the survivors and saw the human face of an epidemic; a man-made epidemic. One that took the form of a 100 million mines scattered throughout more than 70 countries. 20 years ago, landmines claimed a new victim every 20 minutes.

That was the state of play two decades ago. And in the face of what seems to be insurmountable odds, we collectively said then that this must end. Later that year we came together as governments, civil society, and survivors from round the world to channel momentum and agree a treaty banning anti-personnel mines.

20 years later, we’ve undoubtedly come a long way. But 2015 showed what’s at stake if we take our foot off the accelerator. That year saw a 75% increase in casualties from 2014 and it was the most deadly year on record since 2006. This marked increase is largely due to the increase in use of improvised anti-personnel mines by non-state armed groups in the Middle East. What’s worse is that of the 6,461 people killed or injured that year, more than 1 in 3 was a child.

The thousands who lost life and limb do not tell the full story. Millions more are forced to live alongside land littered by anti-personnel mines, cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war. By virtue of their very existence, livelihoods are put at risk. They prevent children from attending school. They prevent farmers from growing crops to feed their communities. They prevent humanitarian aid from reaching those in need and they make the journey home impossible for refugees.

It is for all these reasons that the United Kingdom announced in April that we would be increasing our support for anti-mine action. We announced more than $125 million for the UK Global Mine Action Programme over the next three years. These funds build on the existing $38 million dollars our Department for International Development has already committed to and that will be used to clear 150 square kilometres of land of mines, cluster munitions, and other explosive remnants of war. Because of these projects 800,000 people will no longer live under the threat of landmines and 100,000 people will receive education on the dangers they pose. The United Kingdom is also making significant progress towards meeting its obligations under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention to demine the Falkland Islands after we announced a new $25 million dollar programme phase in September last year, which we are implementing now.

And we are focusing our efforts on the countries where we can make the biggest impact, where the greatest number of people live in the shadow of explosive remnants of war. By the end of the three years, Afghanistan, Somalia, and South Sudan amongst others will be among those that have benefited from this UK-sponsored project.

Sadly, this will not be enough. 60 countries and four territories are still contaminated with landmines. Nearly a dozen of these have more than 100 square kilometres that have been forfeited to mines. Landmines are still destroying opportunity and hope. If we are to restore that hope, we must come together again, as we did 20 years ago. Ending this will require money, education and survivor assistance. We call on each and every government that will speak in this Chamber today to play their part.

Mr. President,

As conflicts subside today, the explosive remnants of war do not. Landmines respect no ceasefire. They respect no peace agreement. In any given week this Council discusses the need to end violence, conflict and war in some part of the world. If we don’t tackle the global scourge that is landmines, we are putting those who have emerged through conflicts even further behind.

20 years ago, we showed that collective action was possible. Now it’s time to finish the job.

Thank you.

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Hundreds of Russian citizens have been arrested after participating in anti-corruption demonstrations across the country. This included opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, said: I am concerned by the detention on 12 Ju… read more

The CMA has accepted proposals by David Lloyd to resolve concerns over its proposed purchase of Virgin Active gyms in Brighton and Brentwood.

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In the first Cabinet meeting since the election, ministers discussed the forthcoming Queen’s Speech, including the legislative programme required to deliver the best possible Brexit deal for the whole United Kingdom.

Ministers also received an update on the appalling terrorist attacks in Manchester and London during the general election campaign. The Home Secretary and the Health Secretary praised the extraordinary response of the police and emergency services to both incidents.

Cabinet also discussed the ongoing talks with the DUP to secure a confidence and supply arrangement.

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