Foreign Secretary to City of London - ‘Freedom of navigation means navigation must be free’
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In annual Mansion House address, Foreign
Secretary to reiterate UK's support for US-Iran ceasefire
and the importance of restoring freedom of navigation. She
will stress the urgency of re-opening the Strait of
Hormuz to help reduce the impact of the conflict on cost of
living pressures in the UK. Foreign Secretary will also reiterate
the importance of Lebanon being included in the ceasefire. In
advance of speech, she will visit the...Request free trial
Shipping must be toll-free and unhindered through the Strait of Hormuz, the Foreign Secretary will say in her annual address at the Lady Mayor's Easter Banquet this evening (Thursday 9 April). During her speech, the Foreign Secretary will reiterate the UK's support for the two-week ceasefire and the need for a long-term diplomatic resolution to ensure it leads to a lasting agreement. Her intervention comes as the Prime Minister works towards the same goals on a visit to partners in the Gulf region. The Foreign Secretary will underline the economic impact of the war on people in Britain. Iran's strikes against its neighbours in the Gulf have endangered civilians and regional stability, and in her remarks at the Mansion House, she will point to the links between the conflict and the cost of living at home through its impact on mortgage rates, fuel prices and the cost of food. The UK Government is committed to playing its part in ensuring a swift resolution to the situation in the Middle East. The Foreign Secretary's speech follows the conference call she convened last week, involving representatives of more than 40 countries alongside organisations like the International Maritime Organisation, focused on restoring freedom of navigation and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. As part of her continuing international engagement on the issue, the Foreign Secretary will visit the International Maritime Organization this morning to build support for re-opening this vital waterway, starting with the ships currently trapped in the Strait, and back the efforts of the IMO itself to highlight the position of 20,000 stranded seafarers. She will meet Secretary General of the IMO Arsenio Dominguez, who joined the UK-led call last week, and will make clear both the UK's support for the IMO's efforts to ensure the safety and security of shipping, and the UK's readiness to convene international support and pressure to maintain the freedom of navigation. Foreign Secretary Mansion House speech – extracts The ceasefire agreement between the US, Israel and Iran is welcome. It is a vital step towards bringing security and stability to the region, and to easing the pressures on the global economy and the cost of living here at home. There is considerable work to do, and we support the negotiations: they must make progress; there must be no return to conflict; Lebanon must be included in the ceasefire; there must be no further threat from Iran to its neighbours; and crucially the Strait of Hormuz must be fully reopened. More than three thousand miles away from here – yet the deliberate blocking of this critical artery of the global economy is affecting mortgage rates, petrol and food prices, here at home. Every country on every continent has felt the effects. That is why we have been working for a swift resolution of this conflict and to support the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Freedom of Navigation Last week I convened more than 40 nations from every continent across the globe, all adamant that freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz must be restored: fertiliser for Africa, Liquid Natural Gas for Asia, jet fuel for the world; the trading route for Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Oman, all hijacked by Iran so they can hold the global economy hostage. But this is an international shipping route – a transit route for the High Seas. No country can close these routes – it goes against the fundamental principles of the law of the sea. In Britain, the importance of this runs deep through our history, our interests and our values. We are an island nation. A maritime economy. 95 per cent of our trade is carried by sea. Around 40 per cent of our food is imported. It was Victorian Britain that pioneered the freedom of the seas, maritime law, and made piracy a crime of universal jurisdiction. And today, we know more than ever that freedom of navigation is the underpinning of global trade. It matters for every sea, ocean and strait. Every country has a stake in this. Every industry is affected by it. We should start immediately to get international shipping moving again by supporting the International Maritime Organisation's proposals to move the ships trapped in the Strait, and the 20,000 stranded seafarers – a humanitarian as well as an economic first step. And then the full and unconditional re-opening of the Strait must be a central part not just of the current ceasefire but of the long term future for the region. The fundamental freedoms of the seas must not be unilaterally withdrawn or sold off to individual bidders. Nor can there be any place for tolls on an international waterway. The international consensus that Britain helped build more than a hundred years ago in support of maritime freedoms we will champion again now. Freedom of navigation means navigation must be free. |