Select committee: Defence Committee
Recommendation 3
Eleventh Report - UK Defence and the Indo-Pacific
Published 24 Oct 2023
Paragraph 44
Addressed to Ministry of Defence
Defence Committee UK Defence and the Indo-Pacific All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The UK’s regional military presence in the Indo-Pacific remains limited and the strategy to which it contributes is unclear. This contrasts to both the US—a global and Pacific power—and to France–a more comparable actor to the UK in terms of geography, scale, and military capability. Without a larger permanent presence it is unlikely that the UK would be able to make a substantial contribution to allied efforts in the event of conflict in the region. In order to deliver this, the Government must make a choice as to whether it will increase resources in the region, or rebalance current resources towards the Indo-Pacific. The Ministry of Defence should pursue closer cooperation with the United States and France and continue to pursue basing with other regional allies. All of these efforts should be consolidated into a single, cross-government strategy for the Indo-Pacific which states how the UK’s military instruments should be utilised in both peacetime and during conflict.
From: Defence Committee, Eleventh Report - UK Defence and the Indo-Pacific (HC 183), paragraph 44, 24 October 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 11 January 2024.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government states that it has achieved the ambition set for Defence in the 2021 Integrated Review and challenges the Committee's recommendation for a published Indo-Pacific strategy, while agreeing with or noting other recommendations.
- On China, the Government "disagrees that there is a need to carry out an assessment of how to label China", saying that summing it up in one word would be "impossible, impractical and unwise". It will provide a private briefing on Defence's crisis planning process.
- On AUKUS, it "partially rejects" the request for a plan on costs and submarine numbers, saying decisions on numbers and the build contract "will be made in due course". It notes the recommendation on skills and points to a Nuclear Skills Taskforce announced on 1 August 2023.
- It agrees with the recommendations on India and on ASEAN and the Pacific Islands, and supports not seeking Quad membership "at this time". It states it has "committed to the return of the UK Carrier Strike Group to the Indo-Pacific in 2025".
- On the Committee's rejection that the tilt has been achieved, the Government "notes the Committee's criticism" and states that "Defence has met the ambitions set out in the Integrated Review 2021".