Source · Select Committees · Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 22
Increase high-level ministerial engagement with all five Central Asian countries over three years
Recommendation
If the aspirations of Global Britain are to be realised the Government must live up to them across the breadth of its international relationships. We welcome the ambition of the FCDO’s Europe and Central Asia directorate and the intention to make the most of opportunities open to the UK. However, while missions in Central Asian capitals continue to punch above their weight, achieving diplomatic successes, they have been let down by a lack of commitment from ministers. High- level ministerial engagement with Central Asian governments has been persistently inadequate and is interpreted by our partners as demonstrating a lack of seriousness from Government. We recommend more high-level engagement at Secretary of State and head of Government level over the coming three years with all five countries, including bilateral ministerial visits in both directions to each of them.
Government Response Summary
The government partially agrees, noting increased senior ministerial engagement, including recent visits. It commits to actively exploring further engagement opportunities in early 2024 and states the Foreign Secretary will consider appropriate future engagement, but does not fully commit to the scope of engagement recommended over three years.
Paragraph Reference:
22
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
Partially Agree 17. We agree on the value of senior Ministerial engagement with Central Asian counterparts. As noted above, this has increased significantly, including with leaders: for example, the Foreign Secretary met the Kyrgyz Prime Minister and the Uzbek Foreign Minister in November; the previous Foreign Secretary met the Kazakh President during his visit to Astana in March 2023. We are actively exploring further opportunities for senior Ministerial engagement in early 2024, including through both inward and outward visits. The Foreign Secretary, who visited Kazakhstan as Prime Minister – the first UK Prime Minister to do so – will consider what further engagement would be appropriate. A detailed list of recent Ministerial engagement is at Annex A.