Tom Tugendhat (Tonbridge and Malling) (Con):...I welcome enormously
my right hon. Friend’s decision to suspend travel to Belarus and
stop overflights. He is absolutely right to do so, and he joins the
Chairs of the Foreign Affairs Committees of Canada, the Czech
Republic, Estonia, the European Union, France, Germany, Ireland,
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and the United States in calling
for that. Will he go one step further and call for a suspension of
the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the...Request free trial
(Tonbridge and Malling) (Con):...I welcome
enormously my right hon. Friend’s decision to suspend travel to
Belarus and stop overflights. He is absolutely right to do so, and
he joins the Chairs of the Foreign Affairs Committees of Canada,
the Czech Republic, Estonia, the European Union, France, Germany,
Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and the United States in
calling for that. Will he go one step further and call for a
suspension of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the Yamal
energy pipeline, which flows through Belarus? That is where the
money that supports that tyrannous regime comes from. Will he also
join European partners and friends, and NATO allies such as the
United States, in reinforcing that this was an attack not just on a
civilian airliner flying between two EU capitals, but on one flying
between two NATO capitals? That includes us, and it is vital to the
security of the UK people that we stand strongly against it.
Otherwise, everyone flying to Thailand, Australia and many other
destinations will have to wonder not only what they may have done
to offend a regime they are flying over but what somebody else on
the aircraft—somebody they have never met before—has done. Any of
these regimes could be inspired, like Lukashenko’s, to force a
civilian aircraft out of the sky with threats of violence...
(New Forest East)
(Con): May I underline what the Chair of the Foreign
Affairs Committee said about the dangers of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in this
context? When adopting this aerial adaptation from the Putin
playbook of how to deal with dissidents, Lukashenko was clearly
expecting an outcry, but already we are hearing suggestions that we
must not be too harsh against Belarus, otherwise we will be driving
him further into the Russian embrace. Will the Foreign Secretary
ensure that no such argument of appeasement will be accepted by him
and his fellow Ministers?
The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and
Development Affairs and First Secretary of State (): I can give my right hon. Friend exactly
that assurance. The fact is that Lukashenko is already ensconced in
the embrace of Moscow. The question is how we can prise the
leadership away from that. It must be a mixture of the pressure for
which my right hon. Friend and the Chair of the Foreign Affairs
Committee rightly call, and a willingness to have the door of
diplomacy left ajar should more pragmatic voices within that regime
be willing to take positive steps forward. Ultimately, those steps
must end in free and fair elections; that is what the OSCE
investigations have called for and that is what the UK will stand
for.
(Shrewsbury and Atcham) (Con): I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Tonbridge and Malling
(), the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and my
right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Dr Lewis) on
mentioning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Bearing
in mind that Lukashenko does not do anything without the authority
of Moscow, their comments are particularly relevant to this debate.
May I ask the Foreign Secretary what additional steps he is going
to take against President Lukashenko? We already know that certain
sanctions are in place against him and his cronies. Is there
anything else that the Foreign Secretary can do specifically about
additional British sanctions on this dictator?
: Yes, we will look at the panoply of
sanctions on individuals. On sectoral sanctions, we will
co-ordinate with our partners as to whether those are appropriate.
We will take action in ICAO in the way that we have described,
because of the importance of securing civil aviation, but we will
also raise this issue in the United Nations Security Council
because of the threat it poses more broadly to international peace
and stability.
To read all the exchanges, CLICK
HERE
|
