Ambassador Chiveri, thank you for your report and your presentation to the Permanent Council today. Please extend our thanks to your team for their work over the last year.

COVID-19 has presented operational challenges to us all and we appreciate the Programme Office’s effective response to this challenge and your delivery during this period, especially the continuing operations at the Border Management Staff College.

Tajikistan is an important partner to the UK and we will continue to support the country’s development through our own Central Asia programme, including on policy innovation, economic development and migrant reintegration. I was pleased to read the frequent references in your report to promoting gender equality and gender mainstreaming, including providing support to the sixteen Gender-Sensitive Police Units; combatting domestic violence through working with the fourteen Women’s Resource Centres; and furthering women’s participation by contributing to the draft law on gender quotas.

Peace, security and prosperity are all strengthened by drawing on the talents of all members of society, so it is vitally important that women are included in this effort. We particularly welcome the focus on gender in the work of the Border Management Staff College, who have continued to promote women within the traditionally male-dominated border management profession.

I would like to highlight three areas of work that I think deserve special attention.

First, the support your Programme Office provides to Tajik officials on border security via regional conferences and tactical training with officials from neighbouring countries. This is essential for increasing capacity and building trust and expertise in an area vitally important for Tajikistan and its partners.

Second, your work to promote socio-economic development, improving the investment climate, and support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. As a country committed to free trade, we believe passionately in the power of enterprise to guarantee prosperity, safety and security. A more vibrant private sector also encourages Tajikistan’s brightest and best to explore opportunities at home and help contribute to their country’s future success.

We recognise how difficult this work has been during the pandemic, which is why the UK has reoriented our Enterprise and Innovation Programme to support start-ups and small businesses in Tajikistan to overcome the challenges of COVID-19 and protect existing jobs; whilst also delivering more of our support online. COVID-19 presents an opportunity to ‘build back better’, and so we welcome your Office’s support to the Tajik government on transitioning to a green economy. As COP President one of our main campaigns is to accelerate transitions in the global economy. We are asking all parties to show ambition when it comes to climate action and we encourage Tajikistan in its development of enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions and commitment to net zero by 2050.

Finally, on media freedom. We welcome the Office’s work on supporting the media regulatory body to improve professional journalistic standards in Tajikistan. A vibrant and skilled media is the essential ingredient for any healthy democracy. It empowers citizens by holding their government to account, and a transparent government builds trust amongst its people. We hope that the Government of Tajikistan will show further commitment to strengthening its democracy by engaging with ODIHR’s recent recommendations on enhancing the conduct of elections.

More generally, we appreciate the information your report provides on the outcomes achieved as a result of the Office’s activities, and we would welcome even greater focus on impact in your reporting. The OSCE’s field missions implement much good work, as evidenced today, and it is essential for the strength of the organisation that we can also clearly point to the real world impact that this work has. The UK – here in Vienna and through our Embassy in Dushanbe – extends its cooperation and support to the Office’s work.

Ambassador, thanks to you and your team for progressing the OSCE’s mandate in Tajikistan across all three dimensions of the OSCE.

For the first time, the Royal Navy assisted the RAF and Strategic Command in a 6-day operation this month to the isolated South Atlantic island community.

An RAF Voyager aircraft made the 8,000 mile trip from RAF Brize Norton to the Falkland Islands, via Dakar in Senegal to refuel, before HMS Forth sailed the 2,000 mile voyage to Tristan da Cunha.

Delivered on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Crown Agents, enough doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have now been delivered to the island to cover the entire adult population.

Minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey said:

This operation to transport vaccines to one of the most remote parts of the world, reaffirms our commitment to the people of our Overseas Territories.

The Armed Forces take great pride in supporting our people, at home or abroad, whenever and wherever needed. I am immensely proud of all Royal Navy and RAF personnel involved in this mission and the role they have played in helping to deliver vaccines to the people of Tristan da Cunha safely and quickly.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Minister, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said:

I am proud of the support the UK has given its Overseas Territories during a horrendous year.

In total the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has delivered over three million items of medical equipment to the Overseas Territories since March last year. They have organised delivery of lifesaving vaccines to all of the inhabited Overseas Territories. This has been no small logistical, physical or diplomatic feat and I have been incredibly impressed by the work of local administrations in rolling out our world-leading vaccination programmes. In these difficult times we have seen the very best of our people.

The remote volcanic island has fortunately had no confirmed cases of Covid-19. However, with a population of just over 200 and with its nearest neighbour over 1,500 miles away, the island would have faced a variety of challenges should Covid-19 have hit.

The delivery, which arrived on 21 April, will ensure the island’s entire adult population who wish to can be immunised against coronavirus.

Bryan Richmond, Covid Response Lead at Crown Agents, said:

We are immensely proud to have been part of the team to have made this mission possible. Delivering Covid vaccines is a delicate matter: They have to be stored at specific temperatures throughout their journey- remote destinations are especially difficult since the vaccines travel 10000 miles by air, ship and road and are exposed to significant climatic temperature changes. The team has achieved this, and it is Crown Agents’ mission to continue to ensure that isolated communities such as TDC are not left behind in the fight against Covid-19.

The operation was a huge logistical challenge, made more complex by the need to store and transport the vaccine at an ambient temperature so that the vaccines remained at between 2⁰C and 8⁰C throughout its transfer.

Vaccines were stored in specialised fridges on board HMS Forth, with the temperature checked regularly by the crew. They were then moved from ship-to-shore inside a temperature controlled container, before being safely stored in the fridges at Tristan da Cunha hospital.

This is the first time the Royal Navy has assisted with the transportation of vaccines, ensuring the vital doses were onboard the ship within 90 minutes of the RAF aircraft touching down in the Falklands.

Commander British Forces South Atlantic Islands, Commodore Jonathan Lett said:

The entire operation has been a great team effort from start to finish. I am hugely proud of every member of the BFSAI team involved in all elements of this epic journey”.

HMS Forth is currently deployed in the South Atlantic, and has patrolled the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha during the course of the last month.

Earlier this year, the RAF transported vaccines to Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, Ascension Island in support of the FCDO’s vaccine rollout to the Overseas Territories.

Tristan da Cunha belongs to the most remote groups of inhabited islands in the world. The island itself has a long-standing connection with the UK Armed Forces dating back to World War Two, when the whole island was commissioned by the Royal Navy as a U-Boat monitoring outpost and a signals intelligence station named HMS ATLANTIC ISLE.