Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Carmichael Excerpts

Monday 14th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)]

12. What discussions he has had with his ministerial colleagues on the shift in US defence policy from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Dr Andrew Murrison)]

Regular discussions on defence policy, including US defence strategy, occur with Ministers both at home and abroad. The Defence Secretary will, for example, meet Secretary Panetta later this month and looks forward to meeting his successor at the earliest opportunity.

[Neil Carmichael]

When the Defence Secretary meets Chuck Hagel or anyone else who might have been ratified, will he discuss what measures can be used to encourage collaboration so that we can maximise the assets available at the organisation?

[Dr Murrison]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We need to make sure we make the best we can out of assets that are under increasing pressure. I note that President Obama’s guidance issued on 5 January last year, “Sustaining US Global Leadership”, set the scene for how US defence is likely to go. I am particularly pleased to see a high degree of correlation between that and our own strategic defence and security review outcomes. We are close to the Americans, and we look forward to the relationship continuing and developing in the future, as they are, as it were, our best friends.