Oral Answers to Questions Debate
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Geoffrey Clifton-Brown
Main Page: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)Department Debates - View all Geoffrey Clifton-Brown's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(7 years, 5 months ago)
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Sir Alan Duncan
I confirm that we strongly support the leaving in of article 5 as the bedrock of NATO and support NATO as the bedrock of European and wider defence interests.
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Russians’ stationing of new ballistic missiles in Kaliningrad is curious given that it will probably unite NATO members, the United States in particular, around article 5?
Sir Alan Duncan
NATO is taking necessary and proportionated steps—balanced with dialogue—to strengthen defence and deterrents in response to Russian belligerence. At Warsaw, NATO announced an enhanced forward presence, which my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has already referenced today, in Poland and the Baltic states. The UK will lead in Estonia, providing an infantry battalion of 800 troops from May of next year.