European Council: 14 December 2007

My Lords, this was an important part of the discussions for the Council over the weekend. Noble Lords will recall that new sanctions were agreed in October, which are being implemented. As I indicated in repeating the Statement, we reaffirmed the deep concern over the situation in Burma and the importance of the roles played by China, India and ASEAN in supporting change. We believe that the next visit to Burma by Mr Gambari will be crucial, and we need real evidence that the regime is ready to move beyond gestures. We maintain that the UN continues to have the lead role in establishing an inclusive political process, and we fully support it in so doing, but my noble friend is right to bring us back to the realities of some of the desperately difficult situations that exist and the need to make significant progress, which I hope that we shall see shortly.