If anyone wants a good example of a common foreign policy working in practice, it is the united EU response and consistent message about the need for a free and fair electoral process that helped to resolve the political Crisis in the Ukraine.
If anyone wants a good example of a common foreign policy working in practice, it is the united EU response and consistent message about the need for a free and fair electoral process that helped resolve the political Crisis in the Ukraine.
The EU's response to the political Crisis in the Ukraine - where High Representative Solana and the Presidents of Poland and Lithuania played a key role - is another example of the EU working closely with the OSCE and the United States, and is an excellent example of the Union's growing ability to respond in a more coherent and pro-active way.
One of our concerns is that the political Crisis in Ukraine makes it more difficult for it to carry on with the excellent work that it is doing on economic and political reform.
Has the economic Crisis in Ukraine delayed that country's entry into the European Union?
An economic Crisis in Ukraine would be a grave threat to the country's stability and have damaging wider consequences.
An economic Crisis in Ukraine would be a grave threat to the country's stability and could have damaging wider consequences.
It is clear that the Foreign Secretary and our European partners are taking great care to involve the Russians in how to deal with the current Crisis in Ukraine.
The Ukraine Crisis is surely a moment of real geopolitical significance, so the United Kingdom must not now retreat into a new isolationism and should instead keep all diplomatic and economic measures open to us and our partners as we work to achieve unity and resolve in the international community's diplomatic response, and so contribute to the de-escalation of the crisis.
The Secretary of State, like everyone else, will not want the understandable focus on the political Crisis in Ukraine to result in a lack of focus on the situation in Syria.
There is, rightly, broad consensus on both sides of the House that military action in Crimea is not an option, but will the Minister confirm what contribution the UK has made to NATO in response to the Ukraine Crisis, and what role our forces have played in NATO training exercises in Europe?
Along with major partners such as the EU and the US, we have sought to address the political and economic Crisis in Ukraine.
This is a take note debate, and I cannot, and would not wish to, announce the definitive policy of Her Majesty's Government in response to the Ukraine Crisis because it is still under way.
The Crisis in Ukraine is the most serious test of European security in the 21st century so far.
The links between the Magnitsky case and the current Crisis in Ukraine are palpable.
As my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary made clear, the Crisis in Ukraine is the most serious test of European security in the 21st century thus far.
I do not want to say anything new about the Magnitsky case today, but I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend that the scourge of corruption lies at the heart of much of the Crisis in Ukraine, just as it lies at the heart of so many countries today that are not getting the economic growth, prosperity and fairness that their peoples yearn for.
The Crisis in Ukraine is perhaps a sharp reminder of Europe's unwise overreliance on Russian gas.
Today, the wider secrecy around visa bans is relevant to the British response to the Crisis in Ukraine.
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for her Answer, but even if, as we hope, the Crisis in Ukraine blows over, should we not, as a matter of long-term policy, aim to reduce our dependence on imported gas and to regain energy self-sufficiency, which stood us in good stead over so many years?
With permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a statement to update the House on the Crisis in Ukraine, developments over the past three weeks and the action that we propose to take now.
Our co-operation with Russia on that and other international issues, such as the E3 plus 3 negotiations with Iran, is being maintained by us and by Russia, uninterrupted by the Ukraine Crisis.
NATO members will need to take the lessons of the Ukraine Crisis into account in determining the future posture of the alliance.
The right hon. Gentleman expressed through his statement and questions the bipartisan approach we have to the Crisis in Ukraine.
There is a G7 meeting taking place in Brussels today at which the continuing Crisis in Ukraine will be the main item on the agenda.
I look forward to a diplomatic and political solution to the Crisis in Ukraine, and to former allies again working together to tackle the real challenges facing this interconnected and interdependent world.
In advance of our dinner tomorrow night, let me tell the House that in May, in response to the Crisis in Ukraine, the G7 and the European Union re-evaluated our energy security plans and agreed a new approach that would strengthen our long-term energy security.
The Crisis in Ukraine not only exposes the brutality and malign intent of the Putin regime but is a test of the west's moral fibre, following our inadequate response to the Estonian cyber-attack, Ukrainian gas being cut off, the invasion of Georgia and, most recently, our unwillingness to deal with the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Realistically, we have ruled out military action over the Ukraine Crisis, but one possible military option in response to Putin's continuing fermentation of conflict in eastern Ukraine would be for NATO to position ground forces in the Baltic republics or Poland.
My Lords, we have been encouraging dialogue and pushing for a peaceful solution to the Crisis in Ukraine from the very outset, both bilaterally and through the EU, the OSCE and the United Nations.
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend, and I have of course read his contributions earlier this year to the debate on the Crisis in Ukraine.
A friend said to me the other day, “Isn't it a good thing that the two great foreign policy challenges of our time - the Ukraine Crisis and the crisis of fundamentalist jihadism - never come together?
My Lords, the Government are committed to strengthening the capacities of the OSCE, particularly in relation to its crucial role in the Ukraine Crisis.
May I remind him of how suddenly the Crisis in Ukraine blew up; if it were to develop, as it could, into all-out war that then spilled over into Lithuania or Poland, which are NATO members, nuclear deterrents might become very relevant indeed, very quickly.
Let us imagine that halfway through the Ukraine Crisis we had decided to deploy our ballistic missile submarine to a continuous patrol.
As efforts have intensified to resolve the Crisis in Ukraine, the fighting on the ground has continued and the costs of Russian aggression are mounting.
We support all diplomatic efforts that aim to bring about a peaceful resolution to the Crisis in Ukraine.
When this question was handed out, I was not sure that the Government would be aware that Us General Ray Odierno would express concern about our defence capability, following Government cuts, or that the British General Sir Richard Shirreff would describe the Prime Minister as “a bit player” in the Ukraine Crisis.
Countries throughout the world are watching the Crisis in Ukraine and drawing conclusions about how the international community might or might not react in other circumstances.
As reports from the European Leadership Network emphasise, the Crisis in Ukraine has not only caused death and destruction in the country's east, but poses the most significant existing threat to European security of recent times.
As the title of our report indicates, our focus is on the events leading up to the Current Ukraine Crisis and looking beyond it to the future.
I do not understand how we came not to be represented in the key moments in the Ukraine Crisis or how we came to subcontract the main decisions to Germany and France.
The Present Ukraine Crisis is quite different from other crises.
It is true that as a response to the Ukraine Crisis we upgraded the position of Director Eastern Europe and Central Asia as well as adding a new additional director and new deputy directors, which meant that the staff necessarily changed.
The Foreign Secretary - both the current and the former one - spoke to Foreign Minister Lavrov five times in 2014, most recently in a phone call on9 August, and the UK is playing a key role in resolving the Crisis in Ukraine through the EU, UN and NATO.
While we have focused on Ukraine, it is clear to the Government that we do not have a Ukraine Crisis but a Russia crisis, of which Ukraine is the unfortunate victim.
However, I have to say that we have always made it clear that there is not a military solution to the Crisis in Ukraine.
We also need to build relationships with other countries, not least on how we deal with the ongoing Crisis in Ukraine and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union - where I personally have a little professional background.
The Crisis in Ukraine, which the Foreign Secretary referred to, has demonstrated how an aggressive Russia can threaten its neighbours and reminds us of the importance of NATO and of the EU in standing up to external threats in Europe's eastern and southern neighbourhoods.
If he looks at how the United Kingdom Government have been engaged since the Ukraine Crisis began, he will see that my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have been decisive in getting a tough EU sanctions regime in place against Russia.
My Lords, when the Ukraine Crisis broke out, the FCO really felt its lack of expertise on Russia.
From the Crisis in Ukraine to the risk of cyberattacks and pandemics, the world is more dangerous and uncertain today than five years ago.
From the Crisis in Ukraine to the risk of cyber-attacks and pandemics, the world is more dangerous and uncertain today than even five years ago.
Better understanding foreign societies at risk of instability and improving the UK's ability to respond intelligently and appropriately to international crises are vital, as the Ukraine Crisis taught us.
When the Ukraine Crisis broke out, we were desperately short of people who understood Ukraine and Russia, and others who had retired had to be brought back in.
Is it any wonder that we were frozen out of the discussions over the Ukraine Crisis and had to watch France and Germany taking the lead?
Over the last Parliament the country was found to be lacking in expertise, analytical capability and language skills to manage the fallout from the Arab Spring and the Crisis in Ukraine.
The Committee's report, which we have debated at length, shows that over the last Parliament the country was found to be lacking in expertise, analytic capability and language skills to manage the fallout from the Arab spring and the Crisis in Ukraine.