Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Ministry of Defence

Oral Answers to Questions

Callum McCaig Excerpts
Monday 27th June 2016

(8 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Stuart Blair Donaldson Portrait Stuart Blair Donaldson (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (SNP)
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1. What plans his Department has to ensure future defence co-operation with allies and partners.

Callum McCaig Portrait Callum McCaig (Aberdeen South) (SNP)
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11. What plans his Department has to ensure future defence co-operation with allies and partners.

Michael Fallon Portrait The Secretary of State for Defence (Michael Fallon)
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I hope you will allow me, Mr Speaker, to add my tribute to Jo Cox and her work on behalf of the Syrian people, which she pressed very hard on and which must never be forgotten.

Our strategic defence review set out ambitious plans to strengthen our work with allies and partners to promote our security and prosperity. We will continue to lead in NATO, the G7 and the United Nations, and maintain strong and enduring relationships with the United States and our other friends and allies around the world.

Michael Fallon Portrait Michael Fallon
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The bedrock of our defence in the United Kingdom rests on NATO, and the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is committed to strengthening co-operation within NATO and collective defence across the alliance. We will be adding further reassurance to that at the NATO summit that is coming up in Warsaw the week after next.

Callum McCaig Portrait Callum McCaig
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What an utter shambles this is. I am afraid that that is not good enough from the Defence Secretary. We do not have a plan A for Brexit, let alone a plan B. The position of the Government and the Brexiters is confused. There is no plan on the table. Are we going to do a Norway? May I suggest to the Defence Secretary that we look at doing a Norway when it comes to defence, and we perhaps go for the opt-in that Norway has to EU defence schemes?

Michael Fallon Portrait Michael Fallon
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Norway remains and is a very valued member of the NATO alliance. We will be intensifying our co-operation with such countries. It is true that membership of the European Union complements our membership of NATO, and we are engaged in an EU operation in the central Mediterranean, continuing to save lives there and to disrupt the business model of the migrant smugglers from Libya to Europe. The Royal Navy will continue that task.