Sep122017

Xi stresses global cooperation against desertification

East Asia

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday stressed global cooperation to combat desertification, which he said is a common challenge for mankind.

Xi made the remarks in a congratulatory letter to a high-level meeting of the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP13) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which opened Monday in Ordos City in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

In the letter, Xi said land desertification is a major ecological issue affecting the existence and development of mankind, and the situation for controlling desertification remains grave despite the progress the world has achieved since the UNCCD came into effect 21 years ago.

Xi wished the conference a success. He said the conference, with the theme of “Combating Desertification for Human Well-being,” intends to develop a new strategic framework for the UNCCD, which will be significant and positive for guaranteeing global ecological security.

China will unswervingly fulfill its obligations under the UNCCD, and continue to push forward communication and cooperation with all member parties and international organizations to work for the targets set during the conference and create a better world, Xi said.

Sep122017

Speech: Until the regime sees that diplomacy, not duplicity is the way forward, we must use all of our diplomatic tools to bring pressure to bear on Pyongyang

HM Government

Thank you Mr President.

Just over a week ago, North Korea sent a brazen message of provocation, a message of belligerence – a sixth nuclear test, carried out once again in clear contempt for the Security Council, the region, and the international community.

Today, through the unanimous adoption of the resolution, we have sent a message of our own in response. Through this vote we have made clear that we will not stand idly by in the face of such aggression. That we will not be intimidated or cowed. That we will match North Korean provocations with clear, targeted consequences.

Today we have enacted strategic measures that together with existing obligations add up to the most stringent United Nations sanctions regime placed on any nation in the 21st century.

We have enacted measures today that show our determination to act. This resolution does three big things. First it will curtail gas, petrol and oil imports. Second, it will ban all textile exports, taking hundreds of millions of dollars from revenues that the North Korean regime uses to fund its nuclear and missile programmes. Third it will end future work authorisations of North Korean overseas labourers, stopping a sickening industry built on modern slavery, and used to divert funds to the regime.

So make no mistake we are tightening the screw. And we stand ready to tighten it further. Until the regime sees that diplomacy, not duplicity, is the way forward, we must use all of our diplomatic tools to bring pressure to bear on Pyongyang.

Some observers doubted that this Council would be willing or able to react speedily or in unison or even at all to this new provocation. With this Resolution we have shown that we are united in condemning this illegal and reckless act, and that we are determined that the North Korean regime change course.

The unanimous agreement today of the states around this table is a powerful step. We now call on all states to redouble their sanctions implementation, taking note of the decisions that we have made today under international law.

Mr President,

North Korea is engaged in a dangerous policy of provocation. Our role as a Council, and as an international community, is to constrain them so that they change course. Sanctions are a vital part of this effort.

It is the regime that bears full responsibility for the measures that we have enacted today. It is their continued, illegal and aggressive actions that have brought us here. Such actions are in no way a proportionate response to the legitimate defensive military exercises of South Korea and the United States.

There is a way out. Diplomacy can end this crisis. First North Korea must change its reckless course. There must be an end to the tests, an end to the provocations. Until North Korea changes course, we must maintain the maximum pressure possible.

Through this resolution today, we have done just that. The onus now falls on Pyongyang to do the right thing. To step back from confrontation, and to step towards de-escalation.

Thank you.

Sep122017

Security Council approves toughest resolution yet against DPR Korea

United Nations

11 September 2017 – The Security Council today unanimously agreed to impose tighter sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), imposing limits on oil exports, banning the country’s textile imports and access to gas liquids, and more closely inspecting cargo ships going in and out of its ports.

In the approved text, the 15-member Council seeks to cap refined petroleum products up to 500,000 barrels beginning in October, and up to 2 million barrels per year starting in January for a period of one year.

In addition, the resolution takes action against DPRK nationals who work outside of the country and who could be “generating foreign export earnings that the DPRK uses to support its prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.”

The resolution prohibits UN Member States from providing work authorizations for DPRK nationals unless “is required for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, denuclearization or any other purpose,” consistent with other resolutions on the topic.

Building on resolution 1874 (2009), the Council also gives countries the right to inspect ships with the consent of the countries where the ships are registered, “if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo of such vessels contains items the supply, sale, transfer or export of which is prohibited.”

In addition, the Council banned textile imports, including fabrics and partially completed apparel, beginning 90 days from the adoption of the resolution.

The resolution follows the condemnation by the Council of the nuclear test carried out by DPRK on 3 September of this year and its violation of eight resolutions dating back to 2006 which could have “large-scale regional security implications.”

“The proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as their means of delivery, constitutes a threat to international peace and security,” the Council said in today’s text.

Sep122017

This Bill will lead to division and chaos when we need unity and clarity – Starmer

Labour

Keir
Starmer, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, following
tonight’s vote in the House of Commons on the EU Withdrawal Bill, said:

“This is a deeply disappointing result.

“This Bill is an affront to parliamentary democracy
and a naked power grab by Government Ministers. It leaves rights unprotected,
it silences Parliament on key decisions and undermines the devolution
settlement.

“It will make the Brexit process more uncertain,
and lead to division and chaos when we need unity and clarity. 

“Labour will seek to amend and remove the worst
aspects from the Bill as it passes through Parliament. But the flaws are so
fundamental it’s hard to see how this Bill could ever be made fit for purpose”.

Ends