House of Commons - Foreign Affairs

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Third Report

THIRD REPORT

The Foreign Affairs Committee has agreed to the following Report:

FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2002

1. This Report aims to provide a brief overview of the work of the Foreign Affairs Committee during the past calendar year (2002). During the year, we published 12 Reports, on subjects ranging from Zimbabwe to the War on Terrorism, and held 24 oral evidence sessions with a wide variety of witnesses. We also made seven visits overseas as a Committee: to Spain, Turkey, the USA (twice), Cyprus, Denmark and Gibraltar.[1] We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all those who have helped us in our work—witnesses, officials at home and abroad, those who have submitted memoranda to our inquiries and many others.[2]

2. The Committee also organised 47 informal meetings during the course of 2002. These are extremely valuable opportunities for Members to discuss key issues of the day with visiting politicians and diplomats from a wide variety of countries. We were particularly pleased to meet Mr Hamid Karzai, Leader of the Interim Authority (now President) of Afghanistan, during his visit to the United Kingdom in January. We are also always pleased to receive up-to-the-minute briefings from British ambassadors and high commissioners serving overseas, and, as appropriate, from non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In this way, the Committee is able to maintain a 'watching brief' on a far greater range of international topics than would be possible merely by undertaking more formal inquiries. A full list of our informal meetings can be found at Annex A.

3. We have divided our Report into five main sections, which approximately reflect the work we carried out in 2002: continuing scrutiny of foreign policy; scrutiny of specific foreign policy issues; scrutiny of Foreign & Commonwealth Office publications; pre-legislative foreign policy scrutiny; and other scrutiny activities. We also comment on how we have assisted the House in carrying out its wider role of holding the Government to account, the response of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to our scrutiny, and our future programme. Some of our work naturally falls into more than one of these categories and we have reported on it under the heading which we felt to be most appropriate. In drawing up our Report we have taken note of the Liaison Committee's list of "core tasks" for select committees.[3]

Continuing scrutiny of foreign policy

Seventh Report of Session 2001-02, Foreign Policy Aspects of the War against Terrorism (HC 384)

4. In 2002, we continued the 'rolling' inquiry we had announced the previous year into the foreign policy aspects of the war on terrorism.[4] Since the shocking events of 11 September 2001 in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania, we have followed both international developments and the British response extremely closely. Our initial reactions to, and analysis of, the attacks were contained in our British-US Relations Report in 2001, for which we visited New York and Washington in November of that year.[5] This was followed by a series of evidence sessions, informal meetings and a further visit to the USA by some of us in the early part of 2002, which culminated in our Seventh Report of the last Session: Foreign Policy Aspects of the War against Terrorism.[6] In that Report, we examined the key aspects of the Government's foreign policy prior to 11 September, its immediate reaction to the events of that day and the conduct of the war in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom). We registered our support for a great deal of what the Government had done during that period. We commended the contribution of British politicians and diplomats to the creation of an international coalition against terrorism and the successful overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan. We also noted the key role the United Kingdom was, and is, playing in the fight against terrorism. However, we urged the Government to continue giving priority to the gathering of intelligence at this time and to examine closely the root causes of terrorism.

Second Report of Session 2002-03, Foreign Policy Aspects of the War against Terrorism (HC 196)

5. In December, we published our second Report of the year on this very important issue, again titled Foreign Policy Aspects of the War against Terrorism.[7] In it, we updated our assessment of the continuing threat posed by global terrorism and commented on a number of developments since our earlier Report. These included: the threat posed by Iraq to global security and the implications of different policy options to tackle that threat; the series of terrorist atrocities that had occurred in the previous six months, particularly in Bali and Mombasa; the latest assessment of the state of the al Qaeda network; the relevance of the enduring conflict between Israel and Palestine; the legality of possible military action against Iraq, and the extent of states' rights to act in "pre-emptive self-defence". We concluded that, although important progress had been made in a number of areas, the threat posed by al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups, remained high at that time. The Committee also believed that the situation regarding Iraq was an extremely serious one and would need to be tackled with determination and some urgency by the United Kingdom, and others, if an acceptable resolution were to be achieved. While making a number of recommendations to the Government and expressing concerns over its policy and operations in some areas, we were pleased to conclude the Report as follows: "We commend the Government for its firm and committed leadership in the war against terrorism. We conclude that Britain has contributed substantially to ensuring that the 'international coalition' remains a reality, more than a year after the devastating attacks on the United States."[8] The Committee intends to carry on with its work in this vital field.

Third Report of Session 2001-02, Laeken European Council (HC 435)

6. Another important element of our continuing scrutiny of Foreign Office policy is our on-going inquiry into developments in the European Union (EU).[9] During 2002, we examined the Foreign Secretary prior to each of the European Councils: Laeken, Barcelona, Seville and Copenhagen. We subsequently published his oral evidence, providing accessible information to Members of the House and the wider public on the United Kingdom's priorities and ambitions during each six-month presidency of the Union.[10] We also produced a Special Report in January 2002 on the Appointment of Parliamentary Representatives to the Convention on the Future of Europe, drawing to the House's attention the importance of choosing its own representatives to this seminal Convention.[11] We were pleased to note that following our Report a Member of the Committee, Ms Gisela Stuart MP, was chosen by the House to act as one its representatives at the Convention and has subsequently been elected to the Praesidium and chaired its Working Group on National Parliaments.[12] All Members of the Committee are ex officio members of the Standing Committee on the Convention on the Future of Europe, set up last year to examine in detail the work being done at the Convention. We consider this role of supplying the House with the information it needs to act on European Union matters to be one of our most important tasks, and look forward to continuing it in the future.

Sixth Report of Session 2001-02, Turkey (HC 606)

7. In a separate inquiry, we examined the United Kingdom's relations with one of the largest candidate counties of the European Union, Turkey, and subsequently published the findings in our Sixth Report of last session.[13] While recognising the many difficulties that Turkey's application to join the Union faced (in terms of its size, human rights records, border disputes, etc.), we concluded that it could be a valuable member of the EU in time. We noted the important role Turkey was playing in the fight against terrorism and that, while more needed to be done on issues such as the treatment of ethnic minorities within the country, marked progress had been made in a number of traditionally contentious areas. We urged the Government to do all it could in assisting Turkey to meet the Copenhagen criteria and in ensuring that no cultural or religious bar should be placed in the way of Turkey's membership of the Union. The Government's Response to our Report welcomed our findings and we were pleased to note that a number of the issues we had raised were being dealt with, for example the re-broadcasting of the BBC World Service in Turkey.[14]

Eighth Report of Session 2001-02, Strategic Export Controls (HC 718)

8. In this section of the Report, we also wish to highlight the work done by Members of the Committee as part of the 'Quadripartite' Committee. This body consists of Members from our Committee meeting concurrently with those of the Defence, International Affairs and Trade and Industry Committees in order to examine the Government's Annual Report on Strategic Export Controls.[15] This system of joint scrutiny was established in the last Parliament, with the Committees' First Report being published in 1999.[16] We were keen to continue this practice and in July last year the four Committees published their first joint Report of the current Parliament: Strategic Export Controls: Annual Report for 2000, Licensing Policy and Prior Parliamentary Scrutiny.[17]

9. The Report examined the impact of world events since 2000 on export control regulations and looked, in particular, at the situation with regards to India, Pakistan and Israel. The four Committees considered both the general application of the Consolidated Criteria, which govern the export of arms, and specific cases, such as the granting of an export licence for an air traffic control system to Tanzania. The Report commended the achievements already made by the Government in improving the transparency and administration of the export control system, but argued that more still had to be done in a number of areas. It also urged the Government to bring forward proposals, as soon as possible, for involving Parliament in some form of prior scrutiny of export licences.

1 Four overseas visits were also made by Members and staff travelling in a representative capacity to conferences and meetings in Spain, Belgium, Latvia and Denmark. Back

2 Detailed information on the Committee's other activities in the parliamentary session 2001-02 may be found in the Sessional Returns 2001-2002, House, Committees of the Whole House, Standing Committees and Select Committees, HC 1, p 172. Back

3 The Liaison Committee is appointed under Standing Order No. 145 to, "consider general matters relating to the work of select committees". The chairmen of the 33 select committees sit on the Committee. More information on its work can be found at: http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/liaison_committee.cfm. Details of the "core tasks" may be found in: Liaison Committee, Second Report of Session 2001-02, Select Committees: Modernisation Proposals, HC 692, para 33. Back

4 "Foreign policy aspects of the war against terrorism", Foreign Affairs Committee press release no. 7 (Session 2001-02), 13 November 2001. Back

5 See: Foreign Affairs Committee, Second Report of Session 2001-02, British-US Relations, HC 327. All Select Committee publications can be accessed on the Committee's website, at: http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary _committees/foreign_affairs_committee.cfm. Back

6 Foreign Affairs Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2001-02, Foreign Policy Aspects of the War against Terrorism, HC 384. Back

7 Foreign Affairs Committee, Second Report of Session 2002-03, Foreign Policy Aspects of the War against Terrorism, HC 196. Back

8 Ibid., para 246. Back

9 "Britain and the European Union", Foreign Affairs Committee press release no. 3 (Session 2001-02), 20 July 2001. Back

10 Foreign Affairs Committee, Third Report of Session 2001-2002, Laeken European Council, HC 435; Minutes of Evidence and Appendix, Session 2001-02, The Barcelona European Council, HC 698-i; Minutes of Evidence and Appendix, Session 2001-02, The Seville European Council, HC 974-i; and Minutes of Evidence and Appendix, Session 2002-03, The Copenhagen European Council, HC 176-i. Back

11 Foreign Affairs Committee, First Special Report of Session 2001-2002, Appointment of Parliamentary Representatives to the Convention on the Future of Europe, HC 509. Back

12 Votes and Proceedings, 28 January 2002, p 89. Back