Thank you.

Friends, colleagues, the world faces an unprecedented humanitarian crisis driven by conflict, COVID-19 and climate change.

Developments in science, technology and data mean we can identify risks of shocks better than ever before. And yet, still – too often – we wait for floods, droughts and diseases to strike before we respond.

In South Sudan, over a hundred thousand people face famine-like conditions driven by years of conflict and violence. The situation has been compounded by a delay in response to extraordinary flooding.

In Madagascar, almost half a million people are now one step from famine, after an inadequate response to successive droughts.

We need to do humanitarian aid differently.

We need to act ahead of shocks, to mitigate their impact.

We must plan and agree how we will respond to the forecast of shocks, and we must make sure the money is in place to deliver that response.

It is especially important that we support countries in conflict, which are least able to anticipate and respond to shocks.

We know that this proactive approach can save lives, it can protect development gains and offer a smarter use of our collective finance.

In Bangladesh, cash transfers supported by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund – the CERF – helped households evacuate and save livestock ahead of the 2020 monsoon. That response cost $10 less for each person supported, than the 2017 response.

This works in conflict situations too. In Somalia, with food insecurity projected to rise last year, the CERF quickly allocated $15 million for early action, from locust spraying to rehabilitating wells.

But we need to scale this kind of activity up.

In the G7 Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Crises Compact, we committed to support the UN to expand anticipatory action.

The UK has provided £44 million to CERF and £48 million to the country based pooled funds so far this year to deliver on that very commitment.

We are also working with the Red Cross and civil society to support a more locally led approach.

We provided £1.5 million to the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund this year, supporting its work on forecast-based financing.

Earlier this year, we committed £12 million to the Start Fund, which allocates almost a third of its funds to anticipatory action.

And I am pleased to announce, today, that we will provide an additional £1.8 million to the Start Funds in Bangladesh and Nepal, for anticipatory action and disaster response by national and international NGOs.

But this is not just about the humanitarian system.

In the face of intensifying climate impacts, the whole aid system needs to come together to avert, to minimise and to address the threat of loss and damage.

We will need International Climate Finance, the resources of the International Financial Institutions, insurance and other financial instruments.

At the G7 Leaders’ Summit, the UK committed to £120 million for regional disaster protection schemes across Africa, the Caribbean, South-East Asia and the Pacific.

This support contributes to the Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership goal of making one billion people safer from disasters by 2025. I encourage others to align their commitments with REAP’s ambitious targets.

We are also working with the World Bank to help governments deliver through their own national systems.

I was pleased to see that the World Bank recently doubled its Early Response Financing to $1bn for the rest of IDA19.

But the IDA20 negotiations provide a unique opportunity for us to go further. A dedicated financial envelope and specific metrics for crisis preparedness are essential to investment in government systems to deliver anticipatory action.

We will also provide an additional £1.3 million to the Start Network for their risk finance work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan and the Philippines. Our support will allow Start to take out drought insurance cover in Zimbabwe, ensuring that they have the funds to pre-empt damage and to help people get back on their feet fast when disaster does strike.

Our shared commitment to this work is a strong foundation. But to scale up, we need a clear and common understanding of what we have already delivered and what more is needed.

We are working with the Centre for Disaster Protection on a methodology to assess exactly how much of our funding is pre-arranged for action ahead of crises – not just from our humanitarian support but from all our development assistance.

The UK will pilot that assessment following today’s event and I invite other Member States to join us.

As we build towards COP26 in November, now is the time to scale up anticipatory action, and listen to communities’ own plans to reduce climate impacts.

Thank you all for your commitment on this shared endeavour and I look forward to your robust support during the event today.

Thank you.

Thank you Madam Chair. The United Kingdom took note of the note verbale circulated by the Russian delegation informing the OSCE Chairpersonship in Office and OSCE Secretariat of their refusal as host country to extend the mandate of the OSCE Observer Mission, and their expectations for the closure of the Mission.

The position of the United Kingdom on the OSCE Observer Mission has been consistent and clear. Despite its severe limitations, the Mission provided important information on the situation at the 2 Russian border checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk and we have repeatedly joined others in calling for both an extension of time, and an expansion in scope, of its mandate. As the responses to Ambassador Varga’s most recent report made clear, the Mission continues to enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of participating States, albeit not the host country.

We deplore this decision by Russia to unilaterally close the Mission. This is yet another negative step by Russia at a time when greater transparency and confidence building are sorely needed in the region, following the largest Russian military build up on Ukraine’s borders and in illegally annexed Crimea since 2014.

We remind Russia that, as a signatory to the Minsk agreements, including the 2014 Minsk Protocol, it has committed to ensuring permanent monitoring of the Ukrainian-Russian state border and verification by the OSCE. Russia’s decision takes us even further away from fulfilling the comprehensive monitoring foreseen under the Minsk Protocol and contradicts the spirit of the Minsk agreements. It is deeply alarming.

We ask Russia how they intend to fulfil the commitment they undertook in signing the Minsk Protocol to ensure permanent monitoring of the border by the OSCE.

I ask that this statement be attached to the Journal of the Day.

Thank you Madame Chair. Welcome Ambassador Davenport to the Permanent Council. It’s a pleasure to have you with us in the Hofburg. Our thanks to you and your team for the comprehensive report. It highlights some significant achievements over the last six months.

Thank you also for the timely reporting on key developments. We attach great value to your spot reports as an important part of the OSCE’s concept of Early Warning. I also would like to highlight the commendable work of your regional centres.

I want to focus on 4 areas – democratisation, including media freedom; gender; law enforcement capacity; and inter-ethnic relations.

Firstly, on democratisation. We appreciate the Mission’s expertise and advice to the new Government on their legislative programme of work. This includes support to re-draft the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of Kosovo and the review of draft legislation designed to enhance compliance with human rights and rule of law standards.

With local elections scheduled for 17 October, we recognise the support you have already provided to strengthen electoral processes, including supporting workshops organised by the Central Election Commission. We would welcome some more detail of your plans, mentioned in your report, to work with municipalities after the elections.

Media freedom is at the heart of any democracy, and remains an essential area of focus. We appreciate the Mission’s work to address the rise in fake news and misinformation (including in relation to COVID-19 and vaccines) through your work on media literacy and engagement with young people, as mentioned in your presentation today. This is an area of concern throughout the OSCE region. The safety of journalists is another essential issue

Secondly: on gender. We welcome the cross-cutting approach that the Mission rightly takes to gender. Your support for women’s empowerment in political and public life is commendable, alongside your work in preventing gender-based violence, including sexual harassment and domestic violence. Your work in helping to ensure that shelters for women have the necessary language skills in order to assist women from minority communities is incredibly valuable.

The first conviction for conflict-related sexual violence in Kosovo is an important step forward – both for survivors and for the domestic prosecution of war crimes from the conflicts of the 1990s.

Thirdly – we welcome your ongoing support to build capacity for the Kosovo Police, to combat serious organised crime. This includes your advice and assistance on several strategies over the reporting period. Bringing together representatives from the Kosovo Police and the Special Prosecution Office, helped to identify weaknesses and gaps in policies and legislation, find possible solutions and increase cooperation between these important institutions. On 15 September, the Director General of the Kosovo Police, Mr Mehmeti, briefed us in Vienna. This was an excellent opportunity for delegations to hear first-hand from one of your stakeholders about the value of the Mission’s work on the ground. We look forward to a further briefing from a Kosovo interlocutor in the next reporting period.

Fourthly – we thank the Mission for its continued work on tracking inter-ethnic relations in Kosovo; the Mission has become a trusted partner across communities and this work is a real area of strength. The UK has worked closely with the Mission on language in Kosovo and we look forward to continuing this cooperation into the next reporting period. We welcome the accreditation of the Balkanology course at the University of Pristina. While we condemn all incidents of inter-ethnic violence, we are encouraged that the trend is decreasing. This suggests important progress in this area, but as you said today – any case is one case too many. We would be grateful for any more information you are able to provide of the Mission’s work in this area and in the field of community rights.

Finally, with international partners, we support the EU-facilitated Dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo working towards a comprehensive and sustainable normalisation agreement that benefits the people of both countries.

The UK Office for Investment (OfI) and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company, today signed an agreement at Downing Street to significantly expand the UAE-UK Sovereign Investment Partnership (UAE-UK SIP), a framework for investment announced in March 2021.

Over the next five years, the UAE-UK SIP will drive a significant increase in investment across a further three sectors: technology, infrastructure, and energy transition, as well as build on the existing programme of life sciences investment.

As part of today’s agreement the UAE has committed £10 billion via the UAE-UK SIP, overseen by the OfI and Mubadala, one of the world’s leading sovereign investors. This builds on Mubadala’s £800 million commitment and the UK Government’s £200 million to UK life sciences when the partnership was established in March.

From today, the UAE-UK SIP will become the central investment platform under the new Partnership for the Future bilateral framework, which was also agreed today at a meeting between UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan.

Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Mubadala Managing Director and Group CEO commented: > > Today’s expansion of our Sovereign Investment Partnership will help accelerate funding and innovation in key sectors that are foundational to economic growth of both nations. > > It is a testament to the UK’s innovation economy that we are ahead of target with the UAE-UK SIP life sciences programme, which we announced in March of this year. We are already developing ambitious energy transition, technology and infrastructure investment programmes that create new jobs and strengthen commercial ties between our nations.

UK Minister for Investment, Gerry Grimstone: > > Attracting investment has become globally competitive, and there’s never been a better time to be taking part and investing in the UK. > > This partnership has gone from strength to strength and its expansion is evidence of its effectiveness and what we can achieve with important trade and investment partners like the UAE through investment. The partnership will expand the exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas that will drive prosperity in both nations. > > It’s great to see the Office for Investment together with Mubadala Investment Company deliver what we initially set out to do, and expanding into new verticals that will drive economic growth across the UK.

The United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates share an important trade and investment relationship, with total trade of £18.6bn in 2019, and two-way investment of £13.4bn in 2019.

The Partnership for the Future builds on historical ties to formalise and guide trade, investment, and innovation relations between the UAE and the UK. It will also establish new collaborations across priorities, including climate change, education, regional stability, and food security.

Multiple UAE and UK institutions will now invest under the UAE-UK SIP overseen by the OfI and Mubadala, with opportunities prioritised against investment criteria and the potential to support job creation in both countries, strengthen national research and development capabilities and originate new areas of investment collaboration and economic links.

The decision to commence all four investment programmes and increase the scale also recognises the quality of opportunities identified and developed by the UAE-UK SIP. To date, over £1.1 billion has been deployed since the SIP was launched in March 2021.