Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. I thank the Chairman and members for the invitation to appear before the committee to discuss Ireland’s engagement at the UN Security Council and the Foreign Affairs Council since my last update in November. I also wish to update the committee on the development of the Government’s response to the war in Ukraine since my most recent update, which I gave in March.

Ireland is now more than 18 months into its term on the UN Security Council. It is fair to say that we have been consistent, principled, constructive and impactful where we can be. We have been consistently active across the council agenda, particularly on Ukraine, Afghanistan, the Middle East peace process, Syria, Ethiopia and Iran. Our work is ongoing, and what is at stake is sometimes of enormous importance.

As we meet here, we are into our seventh day of what have been 24-7 negotiations on the Syria humanitarian resolution. This was about getting agreement to extend humanitarian access into north-west Syria, making sure that life-saving aid can reach more than 4 million people in need. I have seen at first hand the outstanding work done by the UN and its humanitarian partners, most recently in June when I visited Bab al-Hawa, a crossing point on the Turkey-Syria border, jointly with the Norwegian foreign minister. Along with the vast majority of council members, and based on what we know is needed from the UN and NGOs working on the ground, we wanted a 12-month extension to this resolution. Russia vetoed the resolution that Ireland and Norway presented to the council last Thursday, which would have allowed the extension. We negotiated with unstinting determination over the weekend and up to today. I am pleased to announce that we have secured a resolution to extend the mandate for the operation for six months, with a further extension of an additional six months, subject to another resolution by the council in January. This is a crucial result that will ensure that millions of people in north-west Syria will continue to receive the aid they require. In simple terms, this is about 1,000 trucks a month going into north-west Syria from Turkey. It is supporting about 4 million people, most of whom are living in massive tented cities on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey.

In April, we organised an informal Security Council meeting, known as an Arria formula meeting, on conflict and hunger. We organised another meeting in May on the protection of journalists and media professionals following the deaths of journalists in the occupied Palestinian territory, Ukraine and Afghanistan. We convened another such meeting in June to mark the 20th anniversary of the entry into force of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, ICC.

The Security Council has discussed Ukraine 23 times to date this year. In April, I was pleased to accept the invitation of my Ukrainian counterpart to visit again and see first-hand the impact of Russia’s aggression and war. I promised him that I would use Ireland’s seat on the Security Council to bear witness to what I had seen, and did so a few days after my visit to Kyiv. It is both unacceptable and deeply frustrating that, due to Russia’s vetos, the Security Council has been unable to take meaningful action to end this war. Ireland played a central role in support of a UN General Assembly resolution led by Liechtenstein which was adopted in April. This means that the General Assembly will now automatically hold a debate whenever a veto is used at the Security Council, which will effectively oblige the country which has used the veto at the Security Council to account for its decision to the full UN membership. This is an important new element for increased accountability and transparency in the work of the UN.

I know that Ukraine is still to the fore of members’ minds, and rightly so. It is also to the fore in the minds of those in government. EU foreign affairs ministers have discussed the invasion and our collective response at every meeting since the war began and will be doing so again next Monday. I have heard directly from the Ukrainian foreign minister on how the EU could best support his country. He has been very clear - more military support, more sanctions, proper accountability and full support for Ukraine’s candidacy for the EU. We have also met with the foreign ministers of the US, the UK, Canada, Norway and Iceland, the Secretary General of NATO, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the ICC prosecutor in order to ensure that our response is co-ordinated with our closest partners.

To date, the EU has adopted the most significant package of sanctions in its history. We have seen unprecedented co-ordination with like-minded states. Sanctions have been imposed on 1,158 individuals and 98 entities. Sectoral sanctions are targeting imports and exports of selected goods, alongside other measures focused on the financial, energy, technology, defence and transport sectors. Russian media outlets involved in spreading disinformation have been blacklisted. Restrictions have also been introduced on economic relations between the EU and the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. I expect the committee to bring forward proposals for a further seventh package of measures later this month.

This will likely focus on addressing anomalies and loopholes and tackling efforts to circumvent sanctions and contain some new measures. I have repeatedly said that Ireland supports the toughest possible sanctions. We are ready to support a complete ban on the import of Russian gas, should we get agreement on that.

The European Peace Facility, which was adopted just last year, is being used to support the capabilities and resilience of the Ukrainian armed forces in defending their territorial integrity and the sovereignty of their country and in protecting Ukrainian citizens against the ongoing Russian military aggression. Four tranches of military assistance have been provided to date, totalling €2 billion. In line with the programme for Government, Ireland's full share of funding - approximately €44 million to date - is being directed exclusively towards non-lethal support. Consideration is currently being given at EU level to a possible fifth tranche of military support. I suspect that it will happen sooner rather than later. This consideration follows the agreement by leaders at last month's European Council to provide further military assistance to Ukraine.

Looking beyond the end of the war, I was encouraged by the European Council's decision to grant EU candidate status to Ukraine. Ireland advocated strongly for that outcome and will stand alongside Ukraine every step of the way to membership regardless of how long that takes.

We are working closely to support the security and resilience of other European states that have become even more vulnerable in recent months. The European Council recently granted candidacy for EU membership to Moldova. The Foreign Affairs Council had a useful engagement with the Moldovan foreign minister and Deputy Prime Minister in March. Moldova is a country with limited resources and its commitment to supporting Ukrainians has been extraordinary. I plan to travel there next week to see how Ireland can further deepen our support. I will also be travelling to Romania on that visit.

We have intensified our dialogue with the western Balkans. In May, the Foreign Affairs Council met all six western Balkan foreign ministers. We are hopeful of seeing progress soon on the accession negotiations for North Macedonia and Albania. In truth, they are long overdue. The UN Security Council mandate for the crucial work of EUFOR Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina is due for renewal in November, with Ireland as a likely penholder. For obvious reasons, securing this renewal is a key UN Security Council priority for Ireland.

The war has resulted in fundamental changes to Europe's security architecture and environment. Even before then, Europe had been facing evolving security challenges, notably cyber and hybrid threats. The strategic compass, adopted by foreign ministers at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in March, outlines the way forward for the EU in the field of security and defence over the next decade and will ensure that the EU remains relevant, strong and coherent in its policies and action.

Ireland needs to improve our own resilience, including through a significant increase in our security and defence spending, which I am glad to say the Government agreed to this morning. For this reason, I brought an ambitious set of proposals to the Cabinet today in response to the recommendations of the Commission on the Defence Forces. These proposals also reflect the increasingly complex and evolving threat landscape that we face.

As a highly globalised state, it is clear that Ireland can no longer rely on geographic isolation for our defence and we are at risk from cyber and hybrid attacks, even where we are not the direct target. With this in mind, and subject to Government approval, Ireland is expected to join the Hybrid Centre of Excellence in Helsinki later this year to ensure that we are learning from other states that are facing similar challenges. Participation in the centre, together with other EU and transatlantic partners, will provide us with additional expertise and practical capabilities to counter hybrid threats, including through information sharing and training.

Regarding the Middle East, while we address a war that should never have happened, we also know that we cannot afford to reduce our engagement in other key issues. The Middle East peace process continues to be a priority for Ireland. At the Foreign Affairs Council meetings in April and May, we addressed the delayed payment of 2021 EU funding to the Palestinian Authority. I argued strongly for the urgent release of the funding without the introduction of conditionality, which had been proposed by the European Commission. This position was supported by a large number of my EU counterparts. I was pleased that agreement was finally reached in June to release the badly needed funding without conditionality or further delay. Ireland continues to engage actively in monthly meetings of the UN Security Council on the Palestinian question, most recently on 27 June. We also organised an informal meeting of the Security Council on the protection of journalists in May following the unlawful killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and the entirely unacceptable policing of her funeral.

As committee members may recall from earlier meetings, Ireland serves as facilitator of Resolution 2231 on the Security Council, which endorses the Iran nuclear deal, called the joint comprehensive plan of action, JCPOA. In this role, we presented our third report to the Security Council in June. Ireland has engaged extensively with all key parties to urge a restoration of the JCPOA. I visited Tehran for the second time in February and urged the Iranian President and foreign minister to return to compliance. We hope to see progress coming out of the recent talks in Qatar, facilitated by the EU.

Turning to Africa, I remain deeply concerned by the ongoing conflict in Tigray in northern Ethiopia. I welcome recent indications that both sides are willing to engage in talks aimed at finding a peaceful solution. This opportunity must be seized. It was at my request that the Foreign Affairs Council last month discussed how the EU could best influence the situation. While we concluded that recent positive progress was not sufficient for full normalisation of relations, we considered how we could incentivise further progress.

The situation in Mali also continues to be of serious concern. Engagement of the Malian armed forces with Russian mercenaries has been discussed at the Foreign Affairs Council four times so far this year. In April, we decided to suspend the operational training that the EU training mission in Mali provided to Mali's armed forces due to the failure of the transition authorities to provide assurances about their co-operation with Russian mercenaries, or the Wagner group as some committee members will know them. Options for EU action in respect of the situation in Mali and the Sahel continue to be discussed.

On 17 June and in a process chaired by Ireland in Geneva, agreement was reached on a political declaration on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. For too long, we have watched the destruction and suffering caused by the use of explosive weapons in urban areas. The misery inflicted in Ukraine is a case in point, but we have also seen this in Syria, Libya, Ethiopia and many other conflict zones around the world. This declaration represents a significant milestone. It recognises the humanitarian consequences of the use of these weapons and, most importantly, it includes a number of ambitious actions that states will take to address those impacts. The implementation of this declaration will change how militaries operate in populated areas, including when the use of explosive weapons is expected to cause civilian harm. The declaration will be formally adopted at an international conference that we will host in Dublin in the autumn.

Staying with arms control, the Tenth Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference will be held in New York in August. As the committee will be aware, nuclear disarmament is a foreign policy priority for Ireland stretching back many decades. At the review conference, Ireland will advocate for the implementation of concrete, transparent, mutually reinforcing, verifiable and irreversible nuclear disarmament measures. This would be comprehensive if achieved. We will urge the fulfilment of obligations and commitments within the framework of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

I might conclude by noting our Presidency of the Council of Europe, a multilateral body in which members of this committee are particularly engaged. On 20 May, we assumed the Presidency of the Council's Committee of Ministers. We have taken some significant steps already. Just last week, we brokered Ukraine's accession to the Council of Europe Development Bank, enabling the bank to play a significant role in rebuilding Ukraine's social infrastructure. We are also advancing reforms that I hope will ensure the organisation's relevance in the years to come. Our former President, Ms Mary Robinson, has been appointed chair of a new high-level group to reflect on the future of the Council of Europe while Senator Fiona O'Loughlin is chairing the council's Parliamentary Assembly committee on the same question.

Alongside our successor in the Presidency, Iceland, we are pushing to convene what would be just the fourth summit of heads of state and government in the Council's 73 years of existence. We have several other important initiatives planned for the autumn, including a conference that will see 46 justice ministers convene in Dublin in September to counter sexual and gender-based violence across the Continent. I could pick many other issues around the world to talk about as well. I thank the committee members for the opportunity to outline some of the highlights of our work in recent months. I am happy to take questions on whatever people would like to ask about.