Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the report by Policy Exchange entitled One Family: Harnessing the Strategic Potential of the Commonwealth, published on 17 October 2024, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a Commonwealth security and defence co-operation forum to (a) conduct joint military and naval exercises and (b) pool resources for cybersecurity.

The UK works bilaterally and multilaterally with many Commonwealth members on defence and security issues, including through other forums - and attaches great importance to this. The Commonwealth as a collective has also been vocal on security issues facing its members, including providing strong support for Guyana regarding Venezuela's actions in respect to the Essequibo region. On cyber security the UK continues to fund the Global Cyber Programme, which works with countries across the Commonwealth to increase their cyber capacity and resilience to threats.