Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Defence

We support director general el-Baradei's proposal, which he has developed with us, the Americans and the French. The argument is actually not about whether the LEU eventually goes out of Iran—some of Tehran's counter-proposals involve it doing so, although at a tempo and a stage not in accord with what director general el-Baradei has said. Despite the challenges, there are a number of opportunities on the horizon on which the Government will seek to capitalise in this Session. The first is climate change and its relationship with economic recovery. I am delighted that at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting this week climate change will be a major theme. The Commonwealth is a unique network of soft power, bridging races, religions and regions. Climate change affects us all and it would be fitting if, in its 60th year, the Commonwealth sounded a warning about climate change, called for political leadership on the issue and showed how to find consensus on the big challenges that we face. On development assistance, the UK will continue to show leadership. The draft international development spending Bill will make binding the Government's commitment to spend 0.7 per cent. of gross national income on international development from 2013. The year 2010 will also provide the opportunity for a reinvigoration of key elements of international security. President Obama's personal engagement and the prospect of an historic agreement between Russia and the US to cut nuclear warheads put us in a much stronger position to strengthen the non-proliferation and disarmament regime as we look towards the global nuclear security summit in April and the non-proliferation treaty review conference in May. On weapons proliferation more generally, the brokering of a global arms trade treaty is progressing well. The US has for the first time committed to supporting such a treaty and there is a clear timetable leading to a diplomatic conference to finalise a treaty in 2012. That comes on top of last year's convention on cluster munitions and the cluster munitions (prohibitions) Bill will implement in UK law the convention that bans the use, development, production, stockpiling, retention or transfer of cluster munitions. In advance of the Lisbon Summit at the end of 2010, NATO will review its strategic concept. NATO needs to build strong ties with other organisations, particularly the EU, to modernise its structures so it has the right tools and capabilities to tackle the threats of today and tomorrow, and to build a frank and constructive relationship with Russia, not shying away from relaying tough messages on difficult issues.