Date/Time
Date(s) - 24/11/2018
12:00 pm - 2:15 pm

Location
Leamington Spa Baptist Church

Categories No Categories

Member of Parliament for Warwick and Leamington Spa Matt Western will speak at 12:30 in Leamington Baptist Church on the subject “Is the UN and Multilateralism under threat?” There will be a Ploughman’s Lunch at 12:00.

President Donald Trump’s recent speech to the U.N. General Assembly comes at a time of diplomatic standoffs with allies and deepening tensions with rivals. It only reinforced his isolation among allies and foes alike, as his nationalistic policies have created rifts with erstwhile partners and cast doubt in some circles about the reliability of American commitments around the world. His speech had no mention of issues of climate change, human rights, the rule of law, poverty reduction, global disease, education and almost solely focused on Making American Great Again. His perspective on the international order is either ignorant of, or disconnected from reality. It was not so much what he said but what he did not say.

The overriding theme of “patriotism” or “nationalism” that carried through Trump’s speech comes on the heels of several moves in recent years within European countries to look towards their own interests first.   Britain’s foreign policy too is currently focused within European Union issues and Brexit. The Russians have been playing the dirty games with their intervention in the 2016 U.S. election, attempts to manipulate various votes in other Western democracies, intervention in the Syrian civil war, and the use of lethal chemical weapons on Britain’s soil. Trump`s intelligence and defence team has labelled Russia the most serious threat to U.S. democracy, but it apparently wasn’t important enough to criticise at the United Nations.

Matt Western Member of Parliament for Warwick and Leamington Spa will address the local UN Association on the current international political climate and the threat it poses to multilateralism/globalism and to the authority and working of the United Nations itself. For example the US Administration’s recent decision to cut funding for the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees and a speech by his national security adviser John Bolton undercutting the International Criminal Court. Last Monday, the five other major powers that were party to the 2016 Iran nuclear deal—Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia—all reaffirmed their commitment to the accord, but the US one of the  other major power signatory to the accord decided to withdraw from the deal.

Mr Western is Member of the House of Commons Select Committee on International Trade Housing, Communities and Local Government.