Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Australian national defence strategy on the UK's cooperation with (a) Australia (b) other partners in the Indo-Pacific.

The UK and Australia are close partners and we welcome Australia's inaugural National Defence Strategy. As set out in the Integrated Review Refresh, the UK is committed to and strategically focussed on the Indo-Pacific. Our partnership with Australia is an important part of this, and we regularly discuss Indo-Pacific collaboration at senior official and ministerial levels, including at the recent Australia-UK Ministerial Consultations (AUKMIN) in Adelaide in March. We work closely with Australia as members of the Commonwealth, Five Eyes, the G20 and the UN, and we regularly discuss defence matters.