Foreign Affairs and Defence

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Wednesday 26th May 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

The last thing a new British Foreign Secretary should do is lecture other people about Kashmir. The British position is long standing and well known, and it has not changed with the arrival of a new Government—[Hon. Members: “What is it?”] It is well known by Opposition Members, too.

Human rights are not the only consideration in forming a nation’s foreign policy.

[Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[Mr Hague]

I shall have to try to get to the end of my speech at some point.

[Mr Hague]

As a major concession, I shall give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry) and then to my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash). I shall then try to conclude.

[Tony Baldry]

I want to give my right hon. Friend the opportunity to amplify what he just said about India and China. The coalition agreement, published last week, highlighted strengthening and deepening relations with India and China as an important part of coalition foreign policy. My right hon. Friend has mentioned it, but will he amplify how he sees the Government doing that in practical terms?

[Mr Hague]

They are different from each other, of course. I am glad to say that when the right hon. Member for South Shields visited China before the general election, he concluded agreement on a strategic dialogue with China, which is something that we have wanted across the parties. The immediate priority is to take that forward. I shall seek an early opportunity to visit China in order to do exactly that. We have some very important British work in the commercial sense going on, particularly at the Shanghai Expo where there is a tremendous British pavilion. Every opportunity should be taken to pursue our commercial links. With India, there are of course also considerations of expanding commercial links but there is an even greater opportunity to expand our cultural, educational and scientific contact. There is more catching up to do in our relationship with India, which has been uneven at times. We will commit ourselves to doing that.