King’s Speech

Lord Vaizey of Didcot Excerpts

Wednesday 15th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Con)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to take part in this important debate on foreign affairs and defence. I will briefly mention how pleased I was to be in the Chamber for the maiden speeches of the noble Lords, Lord Roberts and Lord Young; both were excellent, and it is wonderful to have them in the House. May I also say how pleased I was to see the perhaps “remaiden speech” of the noble Lord, Lord Ashton, now that he has been freed from the confines of the Whips’ Office? I want to talk about the importance of south-east Asia because I am the chair of the UK-ASEAN Business Council, for my sins, having taken over from the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, when she was put on the Front Bench.

I want to begin briefly by putting on record my strong support for Israel following the start of the Israel-Gaza conflict. It is my unequivocal view that Israel has been subject to the most horrific terrorist attack that we have seen perhaps since 9/11, with the death of 1,400 innocent Israeli citizens. I do not want to play some macabre game about who has suffered worst from terrorist attacks, but this is probably the worst terrorist attack the world has seen for quite some time. My mother is Jewish, although I was brought up as an Anglican, and I have distant relatives who live in Israel, who I was lucky to meet just over a decade ago when I went to Israel as a Minister. In fact, they lived on Kibbutz Be’eri, and one of them had to hide for 12 hours but luckily survived, so this feels very close to home.

I feel very strongly that Israel has the right to defend herself and that the siren calls for a ceasefire are utterly misleading. Peace is a long way away; I would not say that we should not strive for it, but we should not use British influence to try to help it along the way. One thing I have felt even more strongly about than I thought I ever would is watching what is happening on our own shores and the isolation of the Jewish community in this country. Never have I felt more strongly that Israel has a right to exist and that it is an absolute necessity that it exists.

I want to talk now about perhaps a more mainstream issue, which is our role in south-east Asia and the role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. South-east Asia—Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore and five other countries—is one of the most economically dynamic areas of the world; it has grown by 4% or 5% this year and will continue to grow economically for many years to come. We have an enormous trade relationship with south-east Asia, some £46.5 billion. Our trade with south-east Asia is bigger than our trade with India or with Japan, and double our trade with Canada. It is an enormously important and growing region with almost 700 million people, half of them under 30.

I was lucky enough to attend the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit recently in Jakarta, and the focus of those 10 nations on their economic growth, particularly on digital, is very important. Britain has a fantastic record of engagement over the last few years. We have of course joined the CPTPP—which is one of the worst acronyms you could possibly dream up for a trade organisation. In fact, I had to google it, as I suddenly went blank when I tried to remember what it stood for. It stands for—I think Justin Trudeau is responsible for this—the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Not all members of ASEAN are members of it, but we are. In fact, we are the only nation without a Pacific coastline that is a member of the CPTPP. That is a real achievement. We are the first ASEAN dialogue partner for 25 years and we now have an ASEAN ambassador, first appointed in 2019; we recently appointed Sarah Tiffin, who is excellent, as our new ASEAN ambassador. It is therefore a huge opportunity at every level. I urge our wonderful Front Bench, who have rightly been praised to the heights for their excellence—the noble Earl, Lord Minto, the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, and the incoming Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, who I think was the first Prime Minister to visit Vietnam since the Vietnam War—to continue their relentless focus on this important region.

As a former Culture Minister, I will conclude by talking about the importance of soft power. One of the things that I have seen when I have been out to south-east Asia is that people will sometimes come up to you and say, “Whatever you do in our region, I would say to you that the Chevening scholarships—the opportunity for high-flying young people to study with a scholarship under the auspices of the Foreign Office in the United Kingdom—is without parallel and hugely welcomed”. Therefore, the importance of focusing on the small things, the minor things that might seem unimportant such as Chevening scholarships and the work of the British Council, is something which I hope our Foreign Office will not lose sight of.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Vaizey of Didcot Excerpts

Monday 21st October 2019 Commons Chamber

[Johnny Mercer]

I am very keen that the service pupil premium is used in the way that it has been designed for—pastoral care and things like that—and if the hon. Lady has evidence that that is not taking place, I invite her to write to me and we can look into it.

[Mr Edward Vaizey (Wantage) (Ind)]

When the Minister next comes to visit the Royal Military College in Shrivenham in my constituency, will he pop into Watchfield primary school, where he will see a brilliant primary school that educates children from all over the world—the children of those of many nationalities who study at the military defence college—and when he gets back will he ask the Secretary State why the Ministry of Defence gives no financial help to this primary school for the language teaching it has to do for those children?

[Johnny Mercer]

I pay tribute to the school in question, which does a great job of looking after the children of those who come and serve at Shrivenham, and I am more than happy to look into the case my right hon. Friend raises.