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Zimbabwe: Elections

My Lords, let us be clear: in the case of Darfur and Sudan a similar path had to be followed for ICC indictments, and it happened. It is not an impossible path to proceed down. There is a possibility of winning Chinese acquiescence as well as Russian acquiescence—to take the two countries which have at times shown diffidence and resistance to these approaches. We have had success with China on Zimbabwe. As noble Lords may remember, I was able to secure a commitment from the Chinese last year in Beijing to cease development assistance to Zimbabwe. This year we received a commitment from the Chinese that the arms on the Chinese arms shipment provided by a state company would not be unloaded but would instead be returned to China rather than used for internal repression in Zimbabwe. So this is not a dialogue of the deaf; it is a dialogue where we are making progress. But my noble friend is correct. We need to make a lot more progress to try and align China with our vision of good governance and human rights in Africa.