, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Well, I think, when it works well, then there's no doubt at all that having a direct Welsh presence inside the embassy means that the profile of Wales is different, and the issues that matter to Wales get heard very regularly and then feed into the work that…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
William Hague. Well done, Alun. [Laughter.] It was like a quiz question, I'm sorry. [Laughter.] When William Hague was Foreign Secretary, he put a lot of energy into making sure that the Joint Ministerial Committee (Europe) was an active part of the way in…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Yes, you did guess, Tom. Now, the UK Government's hands have been very full with lots of other things. The contrast for me will be this: while we were members of the European Union, there was a Joint Ministerial Committee on Europe. It was very active. It…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
I'm afraid, genuinely, I think the answer would be 'it's not been the case so far.'
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
We're not involved in the integrated review. There is some engagement at official level where there are things that would be of relevance to us, but, in the same way as I described in the Irish context, since 2019, the view of the UK Government, I think, has…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
My expectation, Chair, is that there will be a modest refresh of the strategy to take it to the end of the current Senedd term. I think a more fundamental refresh of the strategy is better left to an incoming Government, whoever that would be. So, I do think…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Well, why would it, indeed? These are meetings of the Welsh Government. There is no right of the UK Government to have a presence in the room at all. As of right, they often are. They often are because you'd want them to be there, and there's a good reason…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Well, on the whole, Chair, I would say that this is a positive part of the picture and our relationships with successive UK Governments. It's not without its wrinkles—I'll mention one in a moment—but, on the whole, I would say that Welsh activity abroad has…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Well, my view is it's got to be the second. It's not enough to go and just focus on the precipitating cause of the visit. So, when Dawn Bowden went to New Zealand, she had a much wider programme of contacts with the New Zealand Government. Now, again, there…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Yes, I think that's the final point, Chair. We've shared that information previously, and we'll share it again once it's fully collated. If the question is about ministerial visits, particularly overseas, then that is another one of the clearing house…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Monthly reports come in from every overseas office, and Andrew and people here in Government go through those reports every month to see whether every office is keeping to everything that we've agreed with them that they would do over the year. Sometimes, it…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
I'll ask Andrew to say a few things as well, but, yes, I think that we have learnt many lessons from the experiences we've had during the last few years, and not just abroad. There was the wheelchair rugby championship here in Cardiff over the last week and…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Well, I think we've had quite a successful time with this strategy. The context hasn't been an easy one, as Heledd Fychan said. We have faced many changes—COVID, Brexit, Ukraine—so the context to do things internationally has been challenging. But, I think…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Of course, we are doing that all the time. We had been doing things internally, but more officially back in 2022, to see whether we're confident that the offices that we have globally are in the best places for the strategy that we have in place now…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Well, they are currently at a weak ebb. The current UK Government very much takes the view that those are responsibilities for it to discharge and that it doesn't see a place for devolved Governments being in the room, even—as it seems to me—in discussions…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
At the European level itself, I think amongst the elements in the strategy would be continuing to have open dialogue with parliamentarians at the European level, and Derek's role has been very important to us in continuing that. There is a small group of…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Yes. I'm sure we can find it. I'm sure somebody will have it. [Laughter.]
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Well, there are a number of things, Chair. First of all, I very much agree with what Alun Davies said about the success that Derek Vaughan has made as the Welsh Government representative in Europe. We've been able to do things, as a result of his ability to…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
It was one of the striking things to me, and one of the things I remember most of my visit to Qatar, was a visit to the Museum of Islamic Art—the most wonderful museum. But the director of the museum is a woman, the two deputy directors were women. We think…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
I'm very pleased to be able to let the committee know that the visit to Wales from museum educators in Qatar is happening this month. They'll be visiting the Senedd, that group; if there are members of the committee who'd be interested to meet up with them…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Well, look, I think it is very important, as I say, that we don't stand back from the values that are important to us. The developments in Uganda are abhorrent, aren't they—straightforwardly abhorrent. And our relationship in Uganda is not with the Government…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Well, in many ways, our participation as a Government at the world cup was a very challenging period, because that part of the world does not share some of the values that are particularly important to us in Wales. How do you approach that—how do you…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Well, Chair, thank you very much. Well, the next 12 months is going to be a particularly busy period in international relations because we will be bringing to fruition a series of bilateral arrangements with key regional partners elsewhere in Europe, and…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Welsh Government international relations: scrutiny of the First Minister—continued
Thank you very much. I still have with me Paula Walsh, deputy director of international relations, and Andrew Gwatkin has joined us, director of international relations and trade.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
I do think there are a number of things that the committee is well placed to look at. The first would be how we strengthen the parliamentary dimension of this relationship. As I say, the Welsh Government is a supporter of all of that. When this comes up at…
