NATO Summit

Nadhim Zahawi Excerpts

Monday 22nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is entirely right. NATO was for years focused very much on territorial defence of Europe against the Soviet Union and, sadly, when we look at the defence postures of different countries in NATO, including our own to some extent, we see that there is still too much legacy-asset thinking—about tank battles in Europe, for instance, rather than securing sea lanes, fighting cyber-attack, combating terrorism and securing failed states on the other side of the world. So a big shift needs to take place in NATO, and I think this weekend’s summit was important in helping bring that shift about.

[Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)]

Did the Prime Minister have a chance to discuss with President Obama and others in NATO the very worrying news coming out of North Korea of the discovery of a state-of-the-art uranium enrichment plant?

[The Prime Minister]

I discussed that issue with President Obama and others at the G20 summit in the Republic of Korea, because obviously that country is so close to the line of control that what happens in North Korea is very much on everybody’s minds. What we want is a return to the six-party talks and to put pressure especially on North Korea’s neighbours to try to get that country to go down a more sensible path.