‘Secret weapon’ envoy turns diamond lobbyist

Critics say former star UK diplomat’s brief for De Beers risks watering down curbs on Russian gems

A SENIOR British diplomat who left the Foreign Office earlier this year is now lobbying Western governments over their plan to ban Russian diamonds, The

Telegraph can reveal.

Emma Wade-Smith, who was the UK’s consul general in New York until January, is running a worldwide campaign to alter a G7-designed scheme to stop Russian diamonds being sold in the West. The G7 and EU banned the sale of diamonds mined in Russia earlier this year, in an effort to stem an £805million annual revenue stream to the Kremlin.

Member states, including the UK, were concerned that Western consumers had inadvertently funded the Russian war effort by buying diamond jewellery on the high street.

The countries drew up a certification scheme, due to come into effect in September, that will require companies to send their products to the Antwerp World Diamond Centre in Belgium to be verified as non-Russian before they can be sold. Ms Wade-Smith, who was called Britain’s “secret weapon” in America, has been hired by the dia- mond giant De Beers to lobby for major changes to the plans.

De Beers argues that the requirement to send diamonds only to Antwerp creates high costs for producers and jeopardises revenues of African countries where they are mined.

It has asked Ms Wade-Smith and lobbyists in Washington DC to push for the verification plan to be expanded. The company says countries such as Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and India should verify diamonds as non-Russian on behalf of the G7 and EU. Intense lobbying over the new rules threatens to delay the certification scheme altogether.

Ms Wade-Smith is banned from lobbying British officials under government rules, but has been in contact with other governments since starting the position in February. An industry insider said her role in the US and former position as trade commissioner to Africa had given her government contacts relevant to the diamond trade.

The De Beers proposal to widen the certification scheme is favoured by companies on the World Diamond Council and some African producers.

However, experts say handing the enforcement of the ban to countries that are not signed up to it could lead to more Russian diamonds entering the West illegally.

Hans Merket, an expert in the diamond trade and researcher for the International Peace Information Service, said the lobbying could create “weak links in the chain”.

“Countries such as Botswana, South Africa and India do not align with the G7’s focus on sanctioning Russia,” he said. “Without agreement on the objective of controls, allowing additional countries to verify the origin of the diamonds risks creating weak links in the chain that are prone to exploitation.”

De Beers denied that it was pushing for the sanctions regime on Russia to be watered down, and said it was supportive of the G7 and EU attempt to ban Russian diamonds from Western markets.

A spokesman said: “De Beers categorically does not oppose a verification system as part of the sanctions but has significant concerns about the approach of using a ‘single rough diamond node’ in Antwerp for such verification.”

They asaid Ms Wade-Smith had a “broad government relations remit” that included “engagements with G7 representatives on this topic”.

Emma Wade-Smith, the former consul general in New York, is lobbying to modify G7 rules on how Russian diamonds are verified