Oral Answers to Questions

Aaron Bell Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[Craig Williams (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

7. What diplomatic steps he is taking to strengthen relations with NATO allies.

[Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)]

18. What diplomatic steps he is taking to strengthen relations with NATO allies.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and First Secretary of State (Dominic Raab)]

NATO protects nearly 1 billion people across 30 countries. It is the most successful alliance in history, and we are proud to be a leading member.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We need to use NATO, and it will require reform to adapt to meet new threats. The way to do that is to strengthen and reinforce NATO, so that it can deal with state actors, including Russia, cyber, and all the modern threats. We are absolutely committed to doing that, and bringing our European and north American allies together.

[Aaron Bell]

With the American primary season upon us, political tensions both within and between our NATO allies seem to be higher than ever. Does my right hon. Friend agree that that means we have a greater responsibility than ever, here in the UK, to promote diplomacy between our allies, and to speak judiciously when commenting on their internal politics?

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend is right. He knows, from the last NATO leaders’ meeting, which the Prime Minister hosted and chaired, that we take that very seriously. We contribute to every NATO mission. We are the top defence spender in Europe, the second-largest in NATO as a whole, and the leading contributor to the NATO readiness initiative.