Category Archives: China

FCDO minister Wendy Morton in Evidence Session 13 July

Foreign and Commonwealth Office ( and international development) minister, Wendy Morton, (who is undersecretary of state for foreign affairs), is expected to give evidence on Tuesday 13 July (13:30 GMT) to the Foreign Affairs Committee, as the final evidence session in the committee inquiry into global health security.

The session is the final one a series of sessions that started in March this year and was followed on 30 April and 22 June as part of the committee inquiry into global health security.

Those participants are:  

  • Wendy Morton – Minister for European Neighbourhood and the Americas, FCDO
  • Darren Welch – Director of Global Health, FCDO
  • Robert Tinline – Director for Covid-19, FCDO

The Committee is expected to discuss the lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic, and the prospects of reform to the World Health Organisation (WHO) following criticism of its handling of the pandemic. The session will likely cover the impact of the merger between the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), and recent aid cuts. Additionally, the Committee is likely to explore concerns over disinformation and vaccine diplomacy, particularly in relation to Russia and China. The Committee will hear from Minister Wendy Morton, and officials Rob Tinline and Darren Welch.

Wendy Morton is the Minister for European Neighbourhood and the Americas at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Her responsibilities include health, global health security, multilateral health organisations including the WHO, and international organisations such as the Global Fund and GAVI. Wendy was appointed as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the FCO and DFID in February 2020. She was elected as an MP in 2015.

Tom Tugendhat (Chair) (Tonbridge and Malling), Conservative; Chris Bryant (Rhondda), Labour; Neil Coyle (Bermondsey and Old Southwark), Labour; Alicia Kearns (Rutland and Melton), Conservative; Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Glasgow South), Scottish National Party; Andrew Rosindell (Romford), Conservative; Bob Seely (Isle of Wight), Conservative; Henry Smith (Crawley), Conservative; Royston Smith (Southampton, Itchen), Conservative; Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton), Labour; Claudia Webbe (Leicester East), Independent.

North Korea NEW Missile is A Game Changer…A Challenging Test For Trump

 Kate Burrows-Jones,  North America Editor for World Media

North Korea predictably set off yet another warning shot of its developing nuclear missile program.  President Donald Trump gave a simple response, “I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent.” Mr Trump was at his club, Mar-al-Lago, where he was hosting the visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when staff brought news to their dinner table from United States Strategic Command of  a “medium- or intermediate-range ballistic missile,”  tracked over North Korea and into the Sea of Japan. This was North Korea’s first missile test since the new President’s inauguration.
It was predicted by the Council of Foreign Relations that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un would test the new president with a missile launch within four weeks of taking office.  Unlike North Korea previous missiles, the Pukguksong-2, a road-mobile on tractor-erector-launcher units missile, is described by military analysts as a game-changers as it is powered by a solid-fuel engine – probably using ammonium perchlorate – is that the fuel is extremely stable, can be easily stored and the weapon is ready to be fired virtually immediately,  making it harder to detect and neutralised before launching like liquid fuel  missiles which  takes much longer to move mobile fuelling wagons to fill tanks making it easier to detect by satellites before launching. 

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