Lord Jopling (Con)

My Lords, I was impressed by two points that arose in the debate in another place last week. First, the Statement itself said that “if Putin prevails, he will not stop at Ukraine”. Secondly, Rishi Sunak said that we must have “credible and durable security guarantees”.—[Official Report, Commons, 7/1/26; col. 390.] I very much agree with those two points. Is the Minister seized of the vital need to ensure that any settlement with Putin over Ukraine does not ignore the possibility of him just jumping in and repeating the operation elsewhere? I am thinking particularly of Georgia and Moldova, where there are striking similarities to the Ukraine situation. Putin would argue, with the same dishonest and disgraceful justifications he used over Ukraine, first, that they used to be under Russian influence and, secondly, that Russia already has a military foothold in Moldova and Georgia in a similar way to what it had in Ukraine. I have been to both places. In South Ossetia in Georgia, I looked down over the Russian military base, materiel and equipment with which it illegally invaded some time ago. In Moldova, I have been to Transnistria and met the generals and colonels, who told us in those days that they had only 1,500 troops there, which was a total lie. Will the Minister agree that a settlement with Putin is not just about Ukraine?