Day: December 22, 2017

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

I welcome the unanimous adoption of the UNSC resolution on North Korea.The international community has shown that it is united in its condemnation of North Korea’s reckless behaviour.

This resolution takes vital steps to reduce the export revenues that the North Korean regime diverts away from its people to fund its illegal nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

These further measures adopted show Kim Jong-Un that he has the choice of two paths. To either continue the current path of provocation and isolation or to put the wellbeing of the North Korean people first. We urge North Korea to change its course.

Further information

• Follow the Foreign Secretary on Twitter @BorisJohnson and Facebook

• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook

• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

In a speech at the Plekhanov University, in Moscow, Boris Johnson also took the opportunity to underline the UK’s support for civil society and basic freedoms by meeting a range of civil society representatives and heard first-hand about the state of human rights in Russia.

The Foreign Secretary referenced the restrictions placed on media in Russia – reiterating that the UK believes that an open and free media is essentially to any functioning democracy.

human rights and civil society in Russia

Addressing a room of students and journalists in Moscow, he recalled his own experiences growing up during the Cold War, and praised the benefits of a free, diverse and open civil society, as a way to boost economic growth and productivity.

The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

If you look at both of our societies today it is obvious that the free market, in which people are free to find a market among the rest of the population for whatever goods they choose – within reason – to sell, and at whatever price they choose to sell them, is a more effective system of furnishing humanity with its desires than any other system. It was that brute fact alone that ensured the demise of communism.

Yet that freedom – free market economics, or capitalism – is simply not enough on its own.

That is why I want to make the case again today for the economic benefits of freedom of expression. I want to argue that the more tolerant a society is, the more supportive of free speech it is, the more likely that society is to be rich and successful.

I am sure that everyone can see that the media have played a crucial role in western democracies in holding politicians to account, and in telling the truth to power.

So a free media is in the interests of taxpayers, of shareholders – and of consumers. So it is in the interests of prosperity. Indeed it is no accident that if you look at the global prosperity index, and then you look at the societies where journalists are free and well treated, you will see that the most prosperous societies are the ones where freedom of speech is most cherished.

Equally if you have a society where journalists are shot because they investigate the business doings of the rich and powerful, then you will tend to find countries that are less economically successful, less equal, and less attractive as places to invest.

We have huge difficulties in our relationship [with Russia] today. We cannot ignore those difficulties and the UK will remain firm in its principles. We are forward looking.

But equally I hope I don’t have to belabour my credentials as an admirer of this country. I not only have Russian ancestry but am the first Foreign Secretary in history to be christened Boris – and may be the last for some time. I look back at that time in the 1990s, when in my conversations with Russian journalists and politicians we seemed to share the same ideals of freedom: free markets, freedom under the law, freedom to speak your mind without fear of intimidation, freedom to express yourself and your sexuality provided you do no harm to others.

And I hope that moment of convergence will seem not to have been a fluke, not an illusion, not a mirage or a false dawn. I hope that time will come again.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid today (22 December 2017) announced a new champion for the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor – an area of the country that has the potential to become the UK’s Silicon Valley.

Iain Stewart MP, who represents Milton Keynes South, will take on the role of standard-bearer for this important economic area working with partners to help it fulfil its potential.

As part of the Budget, the Chancellor set out an ambitious locally-led development programme for the area covering infrastructure, housing and business investment. This includes a housing deal with Oxfordshire for 100,000 homes by 2031 and investment in transport infrastructure.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, said:

We know that this corridor has the potential to transform into globally significant economy, we must grasp this once-in-a-generation opportunity to unlock growth.

We have a bold vision for the region and want to attract the brightest and the best. The appointment of Iain Stewart as a dedicated champion will help us work in partnership with communities and secure the corridor’s position as a world class economic area, and a key driver of UK prosperity.

As part of the role Mr Stewart will:

• champion a vision for the corridor with stakeholders including local authorities, local councillors and MPs on a cross-party basis, local enterprise partnerships and local businesses

• gather intelligence on local issues and update government to help deliver this vision in a way that is locally informed

• attend events and meetings, along with local stakeholders and ministers as appropriate, to promote the corridor, for example to promote trade and investment

• carry out media engagements to promote the corridor

Iain Stewart MP said:

As someone who has lived and worked in the region for many years, I’m delighted to be given the opportunity to champion the government’s vision for the corridor.

It’s vital that government and communities work hand in hand to deliver economic growth, and I look forward to bringing together stakeholders and working to transform the corridor into the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley.

Further information

At the Budget, the government published a vision document for the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor.

This role will not have decision-making power. Decisions will still be locally-led.

In November, the National Infrastructure Commission published its final report into the area.

It is very good to be here in Moscow. I think I am the first British Foreign Secretary to be here in about five-and-a-half years. But, of course, this is a very old diplomatic relationship that is 450 years old and dates from the time when Queen Elizabeth sent an envoy to Ivan the Terrible or Ivan the Fourth, as Sergei [Lavrov] has said he was called.

The reason for the length of my absence is that this is a difficult time in the relations between UK and Russia, as Sergei himself has just said. We can’t ignore those difficulties, we can’t pretend that they don’t exist, and we don’t share a common perspective on events in Ukraine or the Western Balkans or, as the Prime Minister Theresa May has said, on the Russian activities in cyberspace.

We speak up for the LGBT community in Chechnya, and elsewhere, as people would expect from us. But they would also expect that Britain and Russia, as two P5 countries, should be able, where possible, to coordinate and to work together on the issues that matter to our voters on the issues, that matter to people of the world. I believe that having talked many times to Sergei, and particularly after our conversations today, that there are things that we can do together as P5 member across the range of dossiers, as Sergei Lavrov has just said.

We may not have an identical point of view for instance about North Korea, but we share the same objective to make sure that there is peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and indeed that it is a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. Neither of us want to see North Korea armed with a nuclear ICBM, and that is very clear. We want to see progress in Syria on the basis, as Sergei has said, of Resolution 2254 – peace and progress for the people of Syria. That is something that unites us and I was very pleased, Sergei, in conclusion to hear what you had to say about our bilateral cultural, artistic, and scientific agenda.

In times of difficulty, this is always an area where we can do more together and it’s great that there was a Shakespeare logo train on the Moscow metro. We reciprocated. It took a while to get a Russia emblazoned train on TFL but I think it happened eventually. There are things we can do together on scientific collaboration, space research.

There is plenty of opportunity for academic, cultural exchanges and 2019 is the year of music and we intend to make the most of it. I’m delighted that trade, in spite of the difficulties, in spite of the sanctions regime, trade is increasing and we certainly want to see more of that. Exports, as I said, are I think around £5 billion worth to Russia at the moment. It is good news that Russian customers are buying loads more British things from kettle crisps to Bentleys. I would in no way discourage that.

I would just make one point very fervently. I am a Russophile, a committed Russophile. I took the trouble before becoming Foreign Secretary to station my ancestors around the world. I have them in Germany, in France, all over the place, America, and of course here in Moscow as well. I am certain that I am the first that the Foreign Secretary in the history of my office to be called Boris – probably the last for some time, I would think. Be in no doubt that I want to see an improvement in the relations between our peoples.

That in no way diminishes the difficulties that we currently have in our relationship at the moment. We have to work hard to address those difficulties. We have to find a way forward. We have to find a way forward and in the meantime what we want to do, as the UK and Russia, is to cooperate in those areas where we can to build that future. So thank you very much Sergei for generosity and your hospitality and for welcoming me and my team today.”