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Ministerial Visits
18. Mr. Fabricant: When he next plans to visit India and Canada. [16006]
Mr. Fatchett: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has no plans to visit India again in the near future. He hopes to be able to visit Canada on European Union business in mid-January next year.
Mr. Fabricant: When the Foreign Secretary visits Canada, will he acquaint himself with the events of
24 July 1967, when President de Gaulle visited Quebec and gave his now infamous Quebec libre speech? That might give him some useful hints about what not to say when he next visits Kashmir.
Mr. Fatchett: The hon. Gentleman has reached new depths with that question. Perhaps we should congratulate him on his creativity in that respect. My right hon. Friend is looking forward to and will enjoy his visit to Canada, where he will strengthen our bilateral relations with Canada, as he has with every other country that he has so far visited.
Mr. Corbett: Will the Minister assure the House that Her Majesty's Government will continue to make it clear to the Governments of Pakistan and India that we stand ready, as we are all members of the Commonwealth, to make available our good offices to enable those two great countries to try to resolve the problems surrounding Kashmir to bring peace and stability to that region and so improve the lives of people in those countries and in Kashmir?
Mr. Fatchett: We have said throughout that we intend to make our good offices available to both parties if that is the wish of both parties, and we stand by that statement.
Sri Lanka
20. Dr. Stoate: What meetings he has had with representatives of the Government of Sri Lanka since 1 May. [16008]
Mr. Fatchett: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary met the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Mr. Kadiragamar, on 11 September. I also saw Mr. Kadiragamar on 5 June, and the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Professor Peiris, on 19 June.
Dr. Stoate: I thank the Minister for that reply. Did he discuss the situation in northern Sri Lanka, which is of great concern to my Tamil constituents?
Mr. Fatchett: I am pleased to confirm that we discussed the situation on each and every occasion. It is important that there is a lasting and just peace for the internal problems of Sri Lanka. We always encourage political dialogue, which we regard as the best way to make progress and deal with the human rights issues that are so important to all communities in Sri Lanka.
Iraq
22. Dr. Gibson: If he will make a statement on Britain's relations with Iraq. [16011]
Mr. Robin Cook: The UK has had no diplomatic relations with Iraq since 6 February 1991. Last week, I chaired a meeting of the five permanent members of the Security Council, which demanded that Iraq accept the unconditional return of UN inspectors. I am pleased that Iraq has now accepted the return of those inspectors, including US inspectors, but we continue to be vigilant to
ensure that the inspectors can carry out in full their mandate to prevent Iraq acquiring nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
Dr. Gibson: Can the Minister inform the House what we are doing to investigate the biological warfare programme of the Iraqi Government?
Mr. Cook: The report that has been heard in the past week by the United Nations monitoring organisation makes very sober reading, in relation to both the biological and chemical capacities of Iraq. It was reported that Iraqi stocks of VX nerve gas keep increasing and that Saddam Hussein can currently produce sufficient anthrax for two missiles a week. Those are serious and sobering figures that stress the importance of the United Nations being able to carry out in full its mandate to inspect the suspect facilities and to ensure that the world does not allow Saddam Hussein to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Mr. Howard: As the Foreign Secretary knows, the Government have the full support of Her Majesty's Opposition in their stance on Iraq. Is he confident that the inspectors will be able to make up the ground that they lost during the period when they were denied access to facilities in Iraq?
Mr. Cook: We have full confidence in the inspectors: it should be remembered that they have managed to destroy more weapons in Iraq during the period of inspection than were destroyed during the Gulf war. Their continuing to achieve that will depend entirely on whether or not the inspectors get full compliance from the Iraqi authorities and we are carefully monitoring that. The right hon. and learned Gentleman is right to draw attention to the damage done by the interruption to the inspection regime. We believe that Saddam Hussein has used that period to shift material to secret sites; it might take some time to uncover those, but we are determined that it should be done.
Ann Clwyd: Will my right hon. Friend continue to press the UN Security Council to set up a permanent war crimes tribunal, so that Saddam Hussein and his closest associates can be tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide?
Mr. Cook: My hon. Friend will know that the Government fully support the two existing war crimes tribunals--one on the former Yugoslavia and one on Rwanda. It is also our position that a prosecution for a war crime or genocide should not depend on an ad hoc resolution of the Security Council. It is for that reason that the Government firmly support the case for an international criminal court where such crimes could be tried and where we could make sure that international law was firmly applied and that nobody could commit war crimes and genocide with impunity.
Strategic Defence Review
23. Mr. Gray: When he plans next to meet the Secretary of State for Defence to discuss the foreign policy basis for the strategic defence review. [16012]
Mr. Doug Henderson: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary will remain in close touch with his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence on the strategic defence review as on the many other matters on which we work together.
Mr. Gray: Is the Minister not concerned that his right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury might well be even more diligent in meetings with the Secretary of State for Defence? Will he not accept that the strategic defence review is entirely Treasury driven? If his answer to that question is no, will he stake his reputation on that?
Mr. Henderson: I stake my reputation on every answer to every question, but I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the defence review is Foreign Office led. When determining how to meet Britain's needs, foreign affairs dictate it and defence ensures that it happens.
European Union
24. Mr. Alan W. Williams: If he will make a statement on the responsibilities of his Department in promoting enlargement of the European Union and in drawing up Agenda 2000. [16013]
Mr. Robin Cook: We have lead responsibility within the Government for policy towards the European Union, including enlargement. The Department also co-ordinates the Government's overall position on Agenda 2000. Tonight, I depart on a tour of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland to prepare for the launch under the British presidency of negotiations on enlargement and to assure those countries of Britain's firm commitment to opening the doors of the European Union to the new democracies of central Europe.
Mr. Williams: Does my right hon. Friend agree that enlargement must involve substantial reform of the common agricultural policy? In the past, there has been a tendency to allow the CAP to be discussed only by farm Ministers, or the Council of Agriculture Ministers. Will he ensure that his Department and others are intimately involved in reform of the CAP? Sixty per cent. of the EU budget is spent on a system that is in need of dramatic reform and that money should be redirected toward other more productive uses.
Mr. Cook: I am happy to tell my hon. Friend that the matter was discussed by the Foreign Ministers of Europe only yesterday and that it is a priority of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is plainly not satisfactory that we should go into the next century with 50 per cent. of Europe's budget being spent on an industry in which less than 5 per cent. of the work force are engaged. We shall continue to press for realistic reforms.
European Co-operation
26. Mr. Skinner: How many times he has met EU Foreign Ministers since 1 May to discuss European co-operation. [16015]
Mr. Doug Henderson: I have met European Foreign Ministers on many occasions since 1 May.
Mr. Skinner: Does the Minister agree that we--and he and the Foreign Office team in particular--should not get too starry-eyed about European co-operation? We have already heard at today's Question Time that the Common Market is in dispute over the Arab-Israeli argument and there is not agreement about Iraq or about Gibraltar. The reason why there are hundreds of people lobbying for mining jobs today is that when those in the Common Market who took the decisions had the chance to do so,
they never bought the cheapest deep-mined coal in Europe. Those are the facts and I think that we ought to bear them in mind.
Mr. Henderson: I assure my hon. Friend that I am never starry-eyed about any negotiation. I also assure him that since 1 May, the Labour Government have worked diligently and hard to get a better deal for Britain on a wide range of issues, including the Amsterdam treaty. We have been able to succeed because we have been in the dialogue, making our view count. That is what has made the difference in comparison with the performance of the last Government.
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