Member

As was mentioned by the hon. Member for South Shropshire (Stuart Anderson), strategically this is a disaster. Right at the moment, the American President is somewhat busy, having recently struck a remarkable peace deal in the middle east, and—whichever way people think he is going on it—being obsessed with ending the Ukraine war. This issue is very low down on his agenda, but he and America will wake up and realise that something they think now to be minor and not worth spending their time on actually will imperil the safety of their base. India has already negotiated a satellite observation deal, and China is currently negotiating.