Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Fourth Report

2  Continuing scrutiny of foreign policy

6. The Committee has continued to conduct in-depth scrutiny of threats to global security, the United Kingdom's foreign policy response to those threats, and the United Kingdom's strategic international priorities. For a number of years we produced reports on these subjects under the title "Foreign Policy Aspects of the War on Terrorism". In the last of these reports, published in July 2006, we concluded that the phrase 'war on terrorism' was inappropriate,[1] and in our last annual report, published in January 2007, we announced that our work in this area had been transferred to a new inquiry, 'Global Security', which would be pursued through a series of focused exercises.[2] This would enable us to scrutinise the work and effectiveness of the FCO in one region at a time. We have subsequently produced two reports under this overarching 'Global Security' inquiry title, on the Middle East and Russia, and intend shortly to publish a further such report, on Iran.

7. In addition to our work on global security, we have continued our monitoring of other consistently important areas of policy. We have taken evidence on developments in the European Union, culminating in a report on foreign policy aspects of the Lisbon Treaty; and as in previous years we have contributed to the work of the Quadripartite Committee on Strategic Arms Export Controls. We deal in more detail with each of these aspects of our work in the following paragraphs.

Eighth Report of Session 2006-07, Global Security: The Middle East (HC 363)

8. As we stated in this Report,

[t]he Middle East is, and will continue to be, of critical importance to British foreign policy. It presents the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with some of its most complex and controversial challenges.[3]

9. In March 2007 we held discussions with a range of key interlocutors in a number of Middle Eastern states. The Committee travelled in two groups, with one visiting Egypt, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (it also received a briefing from the British Embassy in Amman whilst passing through Jordan), and the other visiting Syria and Lebanon.

10. Our Report was published in August 2007. It contained conclusions relating to Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the Middle East peace process and the 'roadmap', Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Iran. It also considered the Government's approach to the region as a whole; its strategy for engaging with the Islamic world; and its need to adopt a holistic approach to the Middle East, while acknowledging the diversity in the political environment across the region.

11. In its response to this Report, the Government welcomed our scrutiny of the FCO's work in the Middle East.[4] We will pursue specific issues raised in the inquiry in our continuing work on Global Security and in our inquiries into specific bilateral relationships such as that with Iran.

Second Report of Session 2007-08, Global Security: Russia (HC 51)

12. We decided that our second 'Global Security' inquiry would be into Russia. This decision was taken partly because of Russia's role in UK and EU energy security. We were also aware of the wide range of other international security issues important to the UK where Russia has an impact, and of tensions in the UK-Russia relationship.

13. During the course of our inquiry, relations with Russia became a major foreign policy issue for the UK, with a low point reached in July 2007 when the UK expelled four Russian diplomats and Russia expelled four UK diplomats in response.

14. As part of its inquiry, the Committee visited Moscow in June 2007. Some Members of the Committee also visited Azerbaijan, as an example of a post-Soviet country which represents an important alternative to Russia as a source of energy supply. Other Members visited a number of international organisations relevant to the Global Security inquiry in Vienna, including the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

15. Our Report was published in November 2007. It encompassed issues including the promotion of democracy and human rights in Russia, the UK's dealings with Russia (including the Litvinenko case), energy security, the EU-Russia relationship, European security issues involving both countries, and Russia's role in the broader international arena.

16. Since the publication of our Report, Russia has announced that it plans to shut down the British Council's offices in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg in January 2008, an action which the UK Government has described as illegal.[5] We are concerned about this recent development and will continue to monitor the situation.

Global Security: Iran

17. Our third Report in the 'Global Security' inquiry will deal with Iran. We visited Tehran and Esfahan in November 2007, and have taken evidence from FCO Ministers and officials, academics and other commentators, and a former Ambassador to Iran.[6] We intend to publish a Report on Iran in Spring 2008.

18. In addition, in July 2007 we published a Report on the specific issue of foreign policy aspects of the detention of UK naval personnel by Iran in March 2007. We comment further on this Report in paragraph 35 below.

Developments in the European Union

19. The Committee has continued to play close attention to developments in the EU. We produced a Report on this subject in June 2006.[7] During 2007 we have taken a particular interest in the process of EU Treaty reform. We questioned the then Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP, about this when we took evidence from her in June 2007 (continuing our practice of inviting either the Foreign Secretary or the Minister for Europe to appear before us in advance of each six-monthly meeting of the full European Council). We took further evidence on this subject from the new Minister for Europe, Mr Jim Murphy MP, in September, and from the Foreign Secretary in October.

20. In the light of this evidence, we decided to conduct an inquiry specifically addressing the foreign policy aspects of the new EU Treaty - the 'Lisbon Treaty' as it is now known. We took oral evidence on four occasions between November 2007 and January 2008: from academics and a former senior official of the European Commission, from Rt Hon the Lord Owen, former Foreign Secretary, from the current Foreign Secretary, and (during a visit to Brussels) from Dr Javier Solana, the EU's High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. We published our report on 20 January 2008, in time for it to be listed on the House's Order Paper as relevant to the debate on Second Reading of the Government's European Union (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to give effect to the Lisbon Treaty in UK law.[8]

21. We have continued our practice of visiting the capital of the country which holds the EU presidency in each six-month period, while taking the opportunity of combining this with visits to other EU states, particularly those which have recently acceded or which are applicants for accession. In January 2007, one group of us visited Brussels and Berlin (to mark the German presidency), while another group travelled to Turkey and Cyprus, to discuss progress towards Turkish accession. (We subsequently published notes on our discussions in Turkey and Cyprus: see paragraph 33 below.) In July 2007, to mark the commencement of the Portuguese Presidency, a group of us visited Lisbon, and travelled on to Spain and Gibraltar. At the same time another group took the opportunity to visit Kosovo and Serbia. Likewise in January 2008, to mark the start of the Slovenian Presidency, a group of us visited Brussels and Ljubljana, while another group revisited Kosovo. This latter visit was timely in that it enabled the visiting group to discuss with a range of interlocutors the implications of the EU's decision, taken by the European Council at its meeting in December 2007, to support "managed independence" for Kosovo. We made some comments on the FCO's work on Kosovo in our Reports on the FCO's annual report for 2006-07 and on Global Security: Russia.[9] We will continue to monitor the fast-developing situation in Kosovo.

Seventh Report of Session 2006-07, Strategic Export Controls: 2007 Review (HC 117)

22. As in past years, the Committee has played a full part, together with colleagues from the Defence, International Development and Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (formerly the Trade and Industry) Committees, in the work of the 'Quadripartite' Committee on strategic arms export controls. This Committee carries out detailed scrutiny of the Government's controls on exports of equipment and technology with a military application.

23. In 2006-07 the Quadripartite Committee carried out a wider than usual inquiry when it examined the operation of the Export Control Act 2002 and the orders made under the Act. In August 2006 it published its "2007 review". In 2007 for the first time the Committee took oral evidence from the Department for International Development as well as evidence from the FCO, HM Revenue and Customs and the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office.

24. The Quadripartite Committee maintained its interest in a range of issues, including:

• post-legislative scrutiny of export control legislation which will contribute to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform's Review of the operation of the Export Control Act 2002
• support for an international Arms Trade Treaty
• the need for defence attaché posts in countries where the export of goods and technology from the UK requires careful scrutiny
• possible changes to the rules on intra-European Community transfers of defence products
• the need to tighten controls on those selling and brokering arms
• the need for better enforcement of the export control rules at arms fairs
• the need for better outreach to industry to prevent inadvertent export of goods subject to export control
• cluster bombs
• the method the Department for International Development uses to assess the impact of applications for arms exports on developing countries.

25. During Session 2006-07 the Quadripartite Committee visited the Export Control Organisation at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and the FCO.

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1   Foreign Affairs Committee, Fourth Report of Session 2005-06, Foreign Policy Aspects of the War on Terrorism, HC 573, para 3 Back

2   Foreign Affairs Committee, First Report of Session 2006-07, The Work of the Committee in 2005 and 2006, HC 206, para 7 Back

3   Foreign Affairs Committee, Eighth Report of Session 2006-07, Global Security: The Middle East (HC 363), para 2 Back

4   Eighth Report of Foreign Affairs Committee, Session 2006-07, Global Security: The Middle East: Response of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Cm 7212, p 3 (para 1) Back

5   See Written Ministerial Statement, HC Deb, 13 December 2007, Col 56WS Back

6   See Annex 4 (evidence taken on 2 May, 23 May, 4 July and 28 November 2007). Back

7   Foreign Affairs Committee, Sixth Report of Session 2005-06, Developments in the European Union (HC 768) Back

8   Foreign Affairs Committee, Third Report of Session 2007-08, Foreign Policy Aspects of the Lisbon Treaty, HC 120-I Back

9   Foreign Affairs Committee, First Report of Session 2007-08, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2006-07, HC 50, paras 39-42; Second Report of Session 2007-08, Global Security: Russia, HC 51, paras 243-64  Back

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Prepared 30 January 2008