South China Sea: Royal Navy Deployment

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Thursday 1st November 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Boyce (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, there is time for both speakers. Could we have my noble friend Lord Howell first?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

Has my noble friend seen some reports of signs of a rapprochement between Japan and China despite 80 years of enormous enmity and many disputes, including, obviously, disputes about the South China Sea? Does she agree that these closer relations, as they are called, between the second and third largest industrial powers in the world, which are both immense markets for our future exports, are thoroughly to be welcomed, and that HMG should be supporting them very strongly indeed?

[Baroness Goldie]

We warmly welcome any suggestion that there may be an improvement in relationships between two important countries such as my noble friend describes. He is absolutely correct that both countries are important trading destinations for the UK. In fact, China has become the UK’s largest goods and services export destination outside of Europe and North America, so if there is a rapprochement between China and Japan, that is to be welcomed.