§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 2 March 1999,Official Report, column 684, how many times Ministers in his Department met their counterparts in the US Administration between 1 January 1998 and 1 June 1998, indicating the dates and locations of each meeting, the Ministers involved and the name of the US counterpart. [80817]
§ Mr. Tony LloydForeign Office Ministers have frequent contact with members of the US Administration in the United States, in the UK and elsewhere overseas.
The Foreign Secretary visited Washington from 15–16 January 1998 and had formal meetings with Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State, who was accompanied by Tom Pickering (Under Secretary for Political Affairs), Stuart Eizenstat (Under Secretary for Economics, Business and Agricultural Affairs), James Rubin (State Department Spokesman), Marc Grossman (Assistant Secretary for European and Canadian Affairs), Donald Bandler (Senior Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council), Anthony Wayne (Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Canadian Affairs), David Welch (Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs); he also had talks with Sandy Berger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. No other FCO Ministers visited the United States between 1 January 1998 and 1 June 1998.
As stated in my previous answer, the information the hon. Member requires on meetings which have taken place between FCO Ministers and their approximate US counterparts in the UK and third countries is not held centrally, and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.