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Proceeding contribution from Jeremy Corbyn (Labour) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 21 June 2011. It occurred during Adjournment debate on Conflict Prevention.


Conflict Prevention

I absolutely agree. In a sense, the way in which Africa is suffering from Chinese attention at the moment is little different from what the European powers were doing in the 19th and 20th centuries—I am thinking of the grab of resources. China's economy is unsustainable in the sense that it is growing far too fast and taking far too many resources from elsewhere in the world. That is fuelling an environmental disaster as well as a supply disaster in relation to so many other things. There has to be a coming together of world economic powers to control these things. This debate is important. The proposals made by Saferworld on conflict resolution and capacity building and the work that it has done are very welcome. I hope that the Minister will tell us how the Government's policy on this is developing and particularly whether he is prepared to organise a seminar so that we can start to build the idea that we remove ourselves from armed conflict and instead bring about capacity building. I will finish on this point. This morning, the Ministry of Defence is saying that it can no longer afford the conflict in Libya. We cannot afford conflicts. We cannot afford the level of arms expenditure that we are spending. What we can afford in this world is justice and peace. That means sharing. It means a slightly different approach to the world's issues from the one that we are adopting at present.


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
530 c17WH 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Subjects
Armed conflict Arbitration Development aid Arms trade EU action Poverty Politics and government Security United Nations Violence BBC World Service Peace negotiations Non-governmental organisations Conflict prevention British Council
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk