Region: Americas

A five-member delegation of UK Parliamentarains visited Uruguay from 18-23 September led jointly by BGIPU Chair, Nigel Evans MP, and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, the Rt Hon Lindsay Hoyle MP.  The visit provided opportunities to meet Uruguay counterparts and explore key trade and economics aspects of this long-standing bilateral relationship.  This was very timely in light of the UK’s recent decision to leave the EU and Uruguay’s desire to capitalise on this to see trade relations between both countries flourish for the future.      

A six-member inter-parliamentary delegation led by Rt Hon Sir Simon Burns MP visited Mexico from 3-9 October 2015 to meet parliamentary counterparts in the Congress of the Union. The visit included wide-ranging exchanges with Mexican Senators, a meeting with party whips from the recently elected Chamber of Deputies, a visit to Puebla State for meetings with university students and the State Governor and a number of cultural and trade events associated with the joint UK/Mexico dual year being held throughout 2015.

A little bit of BGIPU history was made when a Parliamentary delegation from our Parliament visited Guatemala and Honduras in the second week of November. We had not sent a delegation to Guatemala since 2008 and Honduras had never had a visit from the BGIPU. The visit highlighted the key difficulties Guatemala and Honduras are facing in the light of the current security situation and social inequalities, in addition to seeing potential opportunities for British investment and economic engagement.

A joint BGIPU Haiti APPG delegation led by APPG Chair, Lord Griffiths, visited Haiti from 26 to 30 May 2014. The delegation met President Martelly, the President of the Senate and President of Chamber of Deputies at a time when tensions between these branches of government posed obstacle to consolidating democracy in the country. The delegation also met with Haitian civil society groups and representatives of the UK, Canada, EU, US and the UN peacekeeping operation, MINUSTAH to better determine potential areas where the UK Parliament might be able to assist Haitian counterparts in response to their visit to London in late 2013.