Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to work with democratic allies in the Pacific region to offer improved assistance on a range of measures to match or better those being offered by China to small independent nations in the Pacific.

As set out in the Integrated Review (March 2021), the UK is committed to and strategically focussed on the Indo-Pacific region. The UK's close partnership with the US, Australia, New Zealand, and other likeminded partners such as Japan, across the region, is an important part of our Indo-Pacific focus and ambitions to build a 'network of liberty' that champions freedom, sovereignty and democracy across the region and globally. The Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary visited Australia in January 2022 for talks to strengthen economic, diplomatic and security ties. On 8 March David Quarrey, the UK's previous Deputy National Security Adviser and the US' Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell, announced that the US and the UK will work together to invest in partnerships with the Pacific Islands.