Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps she is taking to strengthen the UK’s trade relationship with Israel.

As my Rt Hon. Friend, the Foreign Secretary, stated during his recent visit to the region, the relationship between the United Kingdom and Israel is strong. We wish to strengthen it further.

We are working with Israeli officials to explore opportunities for expanding and deepening the United Kingdom-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement – and we will work with our Israeli counterparts to reinstate plans to host a United Kingdom-Israel Trade and Investment conference in London too.

We welcome Israel’s normalisation of relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. As a friend to all three countries, we welcome the opportunities for increased trade and investment that this will provide.