Peter Hain – 2000 Speech to the Welsh Centre for International Affairs

The speech made by Peter Hain, the then Minister of State at the Foreign Office, in Cardiff on 28 July 2000.

Wales has never been an inward-looking nation. Wales has been active in support of democracy and human rights through the last century. Welsh miners supported the fight against fascism in Spain before the War. Welsh men and women supported the struggle against apartheid. Wales has always been an internationalist nation.

Wales has traded internationally since the industrial revolution. Cardiff was one of the most cosmopolitan and multi-cultural cities in Britain in the early days of the last century – it remains proudly so today. International trade is vital for us. We do disproportionately well out of inward investment. Wales is part of the global economy. As the economic concept of globalisation grows in importance, engagement with the Government’s foreign policy becomes even more important for Wales. The four key objectives for our foreign policy are:

• promoting British prosperity through free trade and international partnerships;
• ensuring the security of the UK;
• enhancing the quality of life through global diplomacy on the environment, drugs trade and cross border crime;
• building respect for our values by supporting human rights, democracy and freedom.

Our active involvement across the world becomes more and more important as the phenomenon of globalisation shrinks the world, increasing the impact on us of events and decisions taken many miles away. Critical engagement in the world’s affairs – the pursuit of political dialogue wherever it can produce benefits – is the business we are in. With some regimes (such as Iraq and Burma), this may require sanctions. With others (such as China), involvement without illusions: boycotting these may leave us with clean hands, but is unlikely to provide their people with better rights.

Globalisation and new technology has had another impact on good governance. Regimes which govern by fear and repression will not achieve the creativity and innovation essential for successful knowledge-based economies. Respect for human rights is therefore not a luxury of growth, but the condition of that growth. Human rights make humans rich. Trade and investment require competition, transparency and the rule of law. Good governance wins international investor confidence.

Our policy can be summed up in 20 words: to promote British interests and pursue British values by supporting democracy and human rights, wherever we can, however we can. Our policy of diplomacy for democracy is in the best British tradition of standing for democracy, free speech and the rule of law. We support human rights and democracy for other people because these are the values we demand for ourselves.

And we reject the cynical view that, because we cannot make the world perfect, we should stop trying to make it better. We cannot put everything right, but we can make a difference. Because we cannot do everything, does not mean we should do nothing. Credit for our military intervention to protect freedom in Sierra Leone should not be withdrawn because we were unable to prevent atrocities in Chechnya.

The global interest is becoming the national interest. In the global age it is in Britain’s national interest to promote British values of freedom, democracy and economic modernisation. Indeed, promoting our values enhances our prosperity and reinforces our security.

Britain is uniquely able to pursue our national interests through our global interests. As the only state that is a member of the G8, the EU, NATO and the Commonwealth and with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, we play a pivotal role.

We are internationalists, not nationalists. That is why we support the United Nations, World Trade Organisation, NATO, and the European Union. We are multi-lateralists not unilateralists. That is why we support international treaties on nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and press all other countries to do the same.

Promoting the international rule of law protects us. That is why we support the establishment of an International Criminal Court. We cannot protect Britain’s environmental interests without backing global action and international environmental treaties. It is through global engagement, not isolation, that we stand up for Britain and stand up for Wales.

Globalisation requires greater humanitarian intervention: we believe that when faced with an overwhelming humanitarian catastrophe the global community should act. It is our duty to do what we can to deter aggression and defend our values, by whatever means will make a difference, whether that is by constructive engagement, or by creative diplomacy or indeed by military muscle.

But this is not a perfect world. It is not a safe world. Nations have the right to protect their people and sometimes they choose to do that by buying British defence equipment. The British defence industry employs hundreds of thousands of people, many thousands of them in Wales. These are real people in real jobs in real places in Wales like Broughton, St Asaph and Sealand. We are not about to put them out of work by closing their industry down.

But there are too many arms in the world and this Government has made our arms exports more accountable and transparent than almost any other country. We have established for the first time:

• a tough code blocking exports of arms for either internal repression or external aggression.
• a European Union arms code doing the same thing.
• annual reports with 300 pages detailing the licences we have agreed – one of the most open exercises of its kind in the world. We have nothing to hide.

Under this Government Britain is leading the way on arms control by:

• banning landmines across the world.
• banning the sale of torture equipment.
• promoting a ban on small arms to conflict zones.
• ratifying the nuclear Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and seeking to strengthen the Non Proliferation Treaty.
• promoting new international controls on chemical and biological weapons.

EUROPE

And on Europe, I don’t have to tell a Welsh audience that Europe is our continent. Welsh is one of the oldest European languages. The stronger Britain’s standing in our continent, the greater the leverage we will have in the other six. If Britain is stronger in Europe, we are stronger in the world. There is no point in being half-in, half out. A half-hearted Britain would deliver only half our interests in Europe.

The European Union enables us to cope with an age in which nations are more interdependent than they are independent, more successfully than any alternative. That reality of interdependence is what underpins Objective One funding: the richer regions of Europe recognise their responsibilities to the poorer regions.

We also have a unique, pivotal role as a bridge between Europe and America. Under this government, we are shaping not shunning Europe. Our attitude to Europe is wholehearted, not half-hearted, committed, not carping.

Constructive engagement in Europe, as elsewhere, is best for us. Eurosceptics undermine our national interests. As we showed over Objective One, we have more influence at the heart of Europe than at the edge of Europe.

A successful Europe means success for us. Pulling out of Europe would pull the plug on millions of jobs all over Britain. Europe is good for Welsh jobs. Out of Europe could mean out of work. Wales is better off in Europe than out.

And, on a single currency, we could benefit from joining a successful Euro through:

• much lower interest rates and lower mortgages
• greater stability bringing greater growth
• lower costs for exporters and importers
• no need to change money so no commission charges for holiday makers
• greater transparency for consumers to compare prices across Europe

But under this Government we will only join if it is in our national interest, if it makes our economy stronger and more prosperous. The Euro will affect us whether or not we belong. It must be therefore in our interests to belong and be able to influence how it works and how it affects us. We would lose out by forever whinging on the fringe.

Europe’s future is not a United States of Europe but a united Europe of interdependent states. However Europe is also becoming a Europe of regions and nations, and they need a democratic voice so that their interests can be effectively heard within the European Union’s structures.

In the Foreign Office we are committed to ensuring that Wales’ voice is heard. We are determined we work closely with the elected authorities in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast in exercising our role in the negotiation and agreement of treaties. In our dealings bilaterally or in international organisations. In our involvement in the regulation of international trade. In our provision of international development assistance. And in our promotion of Britain overseas.

This is especially the case in Europe. Britain is a large and influential member of the European Union. By acting together Britain can use that strength to serve the interests of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or England, which are sometimes distinct, but which often converge.

Wales needs to be active in the EU too, establishing a high profile, advancing its interests, and supporting our effort for Britain as a whole. The Assembly’s exciting plans for establishing a presence in Brussels as part of the United Kingdom’s Permanent Representation – UKRep – will go a long way to achieve these aims. I understand that this new office will work in partnership with the Welsh European Centre, which has done so much for Wales in Brussels. Together the Assembly office, WEC and UKRep will enable the voice of Wales to be heard at the heart of EU decision making.

And Wales must be active on the economic front too. Economic power might have gone global, but companies invest on a regional basis and a national-regional basis. They look to the European market and decide whether they wish to invest – not just in Spain or Italy or Germany or France or Britain – but in Catalonia or Lombardy or Rhone-Alps or North Rhine-Westphalia or Wales. So regional and national-regional economic strategies are necessary to attract capital and to allow regions and nations within states to be competitive.

ENVIRONMENT

But enshrined in the Assembly’s constitution is a commitment to sustainable development, and economic competitiveness does indeed need to be balanced with its environmental costs. Traditionally our foreign policy has been shaped by the fact that we need a stable world, for our security and to provide reliable markets for trade and investment. But accelerating environmental stresses – climate change, deforestation, competition for water and other increasingly scarce resources – also threaten world stability.

So strong international environmental agreements protect our interests. This does not mean imposing first world environmental standards on third world countries. It means working with our partners to find sustainable solutions. It means that we put environmentalism at the heart of our foreign policy. Wealth today must not be at the expense of welfare tomorrow.

OUR COMMITMENT TO WALES

The Foreign Office is committed to serving the interests of the UK and all its constituent parts, including Wales. Indeed some of the most interesting and exciting public diplomacy opportunities to come the way of overseas posts have been courtesy of devolution, as host governments have been keen to question and probe the new constitutional arrangements. In Paris last year, our Embassy’s Queen’s Birthday party had a Welsh theme. Last November in Brunei, our High Commission – with the help of the British Council and the Welsh Higher Education International Liaison – organised a Welsh Festival of Culture and Education. In New Delhi, one of our more enterprising officers managed to organise a Welsh day at the High Commission with nothing more than a few leeks to add a Welsh flavour! And Rhodri Morgan has led very successful trade-oriented missions.

Our posts overseas are assisting official visits by Assembly Secretaries, Scottish and Northern Ireland Ministers and by Committees. We are working together with Team Wales to promote exports and attract investors. Foreign Office resources will continue to promote the whole of the UK in all its diversity. Our extensive network of posts, 221 in all, will continue to provide commercial services for Welsh companies and identify and encourage investors to examine opportunities in Wales.

Foreign companies wishing to use Wales as a platform for European exports will benefit enormously from the new Euro-freight terminal at Wentloog. One of my proudest achievements as a Welsh Minister was to have overcome the deadlock which had stopped progress on this for years. It will become a gateway into Europe for Welsh-based companies and both enhance competitiveness and bring environmental benefits in shifting freight off roads.

I am however disappointed at the lack of progress on another key strategic project opening up Wales to the world. I had worked hard to achieve a proper transport link to Cardiff International Airport. After months of negotiations we achieved an agreement in principle between the airport’s owners, TBI, the Welsh Development Agency with Welsh Office funding of around £10 million matched by an equivalent commitment from TBI. This would have produced a new park and ride terminal at the M4 Llantrisant interchange, with an extra station on the main railway line, linking freight and passengers along a new widened road directly to Rhoose. I hope that this exciting project will be picked up again by the Assembly and by the WDA, TBI and Railtrack. It could transform Cardiff into one of Britain’s top airports, drawing custom from South West England as well (perhaps via a hovercraft or jetfoil link across the Severn Channel).

To succeed, Wales has to think big and act big. As an outsider turned insider, I am continuously struck by the huge potential of Wales that is so rarely realised. We need more vision and boldness, not parochialism and caution. We have some of the most talented people in the world. But somehow that has not been collectively expressed across the nation in a way that could enable Wales to succeed in the way we deserve to.

CONCLUSION

I am proud to succeed many from Wales who have taken the world stage as British Foreign Ministers, including Geoffrey Howe, Selwyn Lloyd, David Owen, my friend Ted Rowlands and Peter Thomas.

Today, our experience of reform and devolution in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland helps inform my foreign policy work all over the world. There are lessons for countries facing seemingly intractable problems of conflict resolution, from Kashmir to Sri Lanka to Western Sahara. None of these conflicts will be resolved without addressing the competing claims for maintaining territorial integrity on the one hand and devolution of power on the other. In Northern Ireland we have achieved peace and moved forward after one of the longest, most bitterly entrenched conflicts anywhere in the world. In Wales and Scotland we have achieved a constitutional revolution with different models for devolving power. These examples show how demands for devolution – and sometimes, full scale separation – were eventually resolved with their peoples remaining citizens of the United Kingdom while enjoying substantially increased rights. They are examples for the world.

Over the past three years we have made bold and radical changes to the way Britain is governed. They strengthen, not weaken, our unity as a people. They are founded, not on a number of disparate nationalist ideologies, but rather on one fundamental commitment to spreading power and enhancing democracy, to involving people in the decisions affecting their lives, to giving them a voice. Devolution releases the potential for a strong Britain and a better Wales. A better Wales punching above its weight on the global stage for the benefit of all its people.