Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans his Department has for defence co-operation with Australia in the next 12 months.

Australia is one of our very closest defence partners. We work bilaterally and in multi-lateral fora such as the Five Eyes grouping and the Five Powers Defence Arrangements. We are cooperating on operations, notably in Afghanistan, collaborating on key defence capabilities, including the Type 26 Global Combat Ship and maintain regular exchanges of personnel. This is underpinned by regular meetings between Ministers and senior officers and officials, and the annual AUKMIN discussions between the Secretary of State for Defence, the Foreign Secretary and their Australian counterparts.