Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Robinson Excerpts

Tuesday 26th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) (Con)]

1. What recent progress he has made on strengthening the transatlantic alliance.

[Mary Robinson (Cheadle) (Con)]

18. What recent progress he has made on strengthening the transatlantic alliance.

[The Minister for Europe and the Americas (Sir Alan Duncan)]

The UK works closely with Europe and the US to promote a strong transatlantic partnership. It is vital for our security and prosperity that we work with the Trump Administration to promote transatlantic unity through NATO. Since July’s NATO summit, we have urged allies to increase defence spending and have encouraged the US to recognise the significant allied progress.

[Sir Alan Duncan]

The intelligence co-operation between our two countries is enormously valuable. It proceeds regularly on a basis of complete trust and adds importantly to the security of the wider world.

[Mary Robinson]

Later this year, the UK will host a NATO summit that will mark the 70th anniversary of the organisation’s founding. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, as America’s closest ally in Europe, we need to be willing to make the argument to our European partners that the financial burden of defending our continent needs to be shared fairly and that other countries need to follow the UK’s example by meeting the NATO defence spending pledge?

[Sir Alan Duncan]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right—indeed, that is exactly what my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has been doing over the past week in his travels around the capitals of Europe—and I fully agree with her, as do Her Majesty’s Government, that burden sharing is important. We have been making that point with European partners—NATO partners in Europe —and I am pleased to say that there is progress, but there is still more to be done.