Background

Following her appointment on 13 December 2018, the Minister for International Relations and the Welsh Language committed to developing an international strategy for Wales. The External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee took a keen interest in this work, which sat alongside its Brexit remit.

In February 2019, the Committee published its report on Wales’ future relationship with Europe and the World, and called on the Welsh Government to publish a new, ambitious international strategy. Its further work in this area should be viewed as a corollary to this report.

Development of draft international strategy:

In Plenary on 3 April 2019, the Minister stated her intention to publish a draft of the strategy before the summer of 2019.

The Minister appeared before the Committee on 10 June 2019 to answer questions relating to the strategy. Following the meeting, the Chair wrote (PDF, 195KB) to the Minister to request further information, and the Minister responded (PDF, 161KB) on 9 September 2019.

Publication of draft international strategy:

The Welsh Government published its draft international strategy (PDF, 2.51MB) on 31 July 2019 and ran a consultation on the document which closed on 23 October 2019.

Evidence gathering

The Minister made a further appearance on 23 September 2019, which was followed-up in writing (PDF, 190) by the Chair and with a response (PDF, 312KB) from the Minister.

On 21 October 2019 the Committee held a round table discussion with academics on the draft international strategy.

The Minister appeared before the Committee on 18 November 2019 for a further scrutiny session, at which she announced that the launch of the strategy has been delayed until January 2020 due to the UK General Election on 12 December 2019.

The Welsh Government published its summary of responses (PDF, 471KB) to the consultation on the draft international strategy in November 2019.

Report

The Committee published its report on the Welsh Government’s Draft International Strategy on 12 December 2019. The Welsh Government responded to the report on 5 February 2020. The report and response were debated in Plenary on 4 March 2020.