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

The straight answer to that is "Yes". When I visited the Middle East a couple of weeks ago, I was in Cairo on the first day of a four-day visit and we had a really good meeting. I met for nearly three hours with my counterpart, the Minister for Foreign Affairs there. We did raise human rights issues. However, we did so in the context of a discussion on a range of matters. From my experience, whether in the European Parliament or here, building personal relationships on the basis of mutual interest allows us to create the space to have honest conversations about human rights concerns as well. It must be on the basis of not lecturing people or being seen to do so. It is necessary to have a real conversation based on genuine human rights concerns.

When I served as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I took two very large trade missions to China. As a result of the relationships we built up, we started to have an honest understanding and a conversation around human rights concerns that we may have. Chinese Ministers are happy to talk about that if it is a respectful conversation.

Trade missions are primarily about opening up trade opportunities. They are also an opportunity for Ministers to raise questions relating to human rights in an appropriate setting. By and large, I think I have used the opportunity to do that whenever it has presented.

See this speech in context