29 February 2008
Back to the CD. Time to catch up on what's been happening in the rest of Arms Control and Disarmament. I never cease to be impressed by the high calibre of the officers both from the FCO and other Whitehall departments who work in this area. It is a real privilege to work with the teams I lead on the overseas trips and my home team who have held the fort in my absence. One of the pleasures of this work is also the way we work alongside NGOs, academics and Industry in a joint effort to try and re-energise multilateral diplomacy. It is a far cry from the world described by ‘Yes Minister’ or John le Carre's novels. A world I certainly recognise from my early days in the Foreign Service, but one which is fast disappearing. Next week back to London for the annual meeting of all the UK's ambassadors overseas. Lets see if they agree with me!
21 February 2008
A gruelling week in New Zealand on Cluster Munitions as we prepare for the Intergovernmental Conference in Dublin in May. The issue is both emotive and technically complex and tempers ran high at times. The NGO community seem very worried that the UK is leading a group of "Likeminded" states (Not true) supposedly bent on "Watering down" the draft treaty text. My interventions recalling the Prime Minister's and Defence Secretary's public commitment to securing a treaty banning those Cluster Munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians cut little ice. In fact what the so called Likeminded want is that their views are fairly represented in some way.
Eventually good sense prevails and a compromise is agreed where the draft text is left untouched and the views of all states are covered in a self standing "Compendium". This allows the majority of states present, including the UK to sign the Wellington Declaration which commits them to a negotiation in Dublin in May. But the Cluster Munitions issue has not gone away, we will be back on the subject in Geneva in April in the CCW. Flying back to Geneva on Saturday arriving Sunday, after 30 hours in the plane. What a way to spend the weekend! Some of my team have more sense and disappear to Invercargill in search of the legendary Burt Munro and the World's Fastest Indian. If you don't know, try Googling it. Amazing people those New Zealanders!
15 February 2008
A successful first week of discussions on the Arms Trade Treaty in New York amongst the 28 countries selected by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to report on the Feasibility, Scope and Parameters of a possible treaty; or in other words if a treaty is going to be possible, What would it need to cover and How would it work in practice.
The countries represented covered the broad range of supporters, agnostics and opponents to the ATT so discussion was certainly interesting, but in the main I was very impressed by the willingness of all present to actually engage in the debate. Much work to do over the coming months and our own discussions with UK NGOs and the Arms Industry will be crucial to our ability to inform our colleagues about the real issues at stake. While the idea of an ATT can be traced back to the 1920s the UK vision of an ATT is intrinsically linked to our ability to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals and to respond to the changes in a globalised market place. This is unfamiliar territory to many in the world of Arms Control. Off tomorrow to Wellington via Los Angeles. Leave Saturday, arrive Monday morning. What happened to Sunday!
8 February 2008
"Two Scots in Geneva"
A good if full week. The UK Defence Secretary, Des Browne, spent 24 hours with us. First to Make a Key note speech on UK’s Disarmament Policy but also for detailed discussions on the wider agenda ATT and Cluster Munitions. The speech was well received and is worth reading (available on our Home page). It puts forward an ambitious agenda up to the NPT Review Conference in 2010. Yesterday the US gave a major presentation on the high amount of decommissioning of nuclear weapons they have achieved in recent years. The number of US nuclear weapons is now below the levels of the early ‘60’s.
Tomorrow I leave for a world tour, starting with the ATT meetings in New York before moving to Wellington, via LA, for cluster munitions. Sounds glamorous but I effectively spend the next 3 weekends in aeroplanes and the week locked up in conference rooms. It is a far cry from my fathers 2 month world cruise last spring. I think the retirees have got it worked out!
1 February 2008
Much activity on the Conference on Disarmament front as we try to keep it focussed on starting negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-Off treaty. The propensity of international organisations to get bogged down on procedural issues is of course legendary. We look forward to the visit next week by the UK Defence Secretary Des Browne who will give a major speech on the UK approach to Disarmament and Arms Control.
Also of interest this week was a meeting of the Geneva Forum (think tank) to discuss the Arms Trade treaty and a second instalment of the UNIDIR report analysing over 100 responses to the UN Secretary general's request for views. The full report is available here. A really first class piece of work that will help the 29 "experts" get to grips with the complexities of this subject. Earlier in the week I was back in London for a meeting with a group of UK Arms producers, ranging from the well known large corporates to SMEs, to explain how the UK wants to take forward the ATT.
Meanwhile on the vexed issue of Cluster Munitions NGO's and members of the Lords met the Secretaries of State for Defence, International Development and Foreign Affairs in London. Perhaps not a meeting of minds but at least NGOs were able to hear from the top level our concerns to balance the need to deal with a real post conflict humanitarian problem with the need to provide protection for British troops engaged on operations. The UK wants a solution but also real action by the users of Cluster Munitions most of which sit outside the so called Oslo process (see earlier entries).
25 January 2008
The highlight of the week was the formal opening of the Conference on Disarmament by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. The very fact of a visit by the UNSG in person is unprecedented and his speech held no punches calling for high level political commitment to getting the CD back to work. Spot on!
I pay a lightening visit to Berlin to call on senior German officials. Only my third visit in 14 years I am always fascinated by the way that city has been re-born and the successful mix of modern architecture and renovation of the old. As usual no time to see much so I resolve to return privately later in the year (time permitting).
18 January 2008
A busy but successful week with a good outcome to the first CCW expert meeting on Cluster Munitions. We at last seem to have moved beyond procedural wrangling and into the substance. So much so that I think some delegations were caught by surprise to see how quickly things moved on trying to establish exactly what types of cluster munitions are causing the sort of problem we have seen in the Lebanon. We still have some way to go however in explaining to the NGO community why some types of cluster munitions will be needed in the future.
15 January 2008
Back to work with a vengeance with two major meetings on the conventional weapons side. First a GGE (Group of Government Experts meeting on how to improve controls over transfers of Ammunition under the Small Arms and Light Weapons process and in parallel the long awaited GGE on Cluster Munitions under the CCW process (see previous entries). I spend my first few days juggling my time between the two GGE teams and the Geneva officers involved in preparing the joint (if six countries can be joint) Presidency of the Conference on Disarmament, which will resume later this month. More on all these issues next week. 36 hours back and the New Year break already seem a distant memory.
I am pleased to see we have been getting feedback on some of the items in the blog, please keep it coming. We will shortly have a feedback page so that I can respond. Until now the FCO WebPage format has meant the blog is not as interactive as I would have liked.
