The Earl of Leicester (Con)

My Lords, I, too, was detained in France so I was not able to speak to my first amendment, Amendment 20, but I shall speak to my Amendment 21 and I support all the others in this group. Amendment 21 basically seeks to ensure that the Secretary of State consults the UK’s AUKUS partners on the transfer of the sovereignty of the Diego Garcia base and that we get the written approval of the Governments of Australia and the USA and the opinions of the senior naval staff of all three partners. AUKUS is central to the strategic defence review. Secretary of State John Healey states in the foreword to the SDR that “the AUKUS programme … will allow us to grow our nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet to up to 12. This will reinforce our Continuous at Sea Deterrent … and position the UK to deliver the AUKUS partnership with the US and Australia”. There have been a number of notable naval critics; indeed, one of them, the noble Lord, Admiral Lord West of Spithead, on the Government’s Benches, a former First Sea Lord and Security Minister, warned: “The Government may genuinely believe that the base’s long-term future is ‘more secure under the agreement than without it’. But … How can the base–which serves as an indispensable naval, air, and intelligence asset–be more secure under the sovereignty of another nation, rather than under our own?” In November last year, retired Rear-Admiral Chris Parry criticised the Government’s deal to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos to Mauritius. He described the decision as “the biggest strategic mistake” he has seen in his lifetime. In February last year, Commander Peters, a retired Royal Navy officer who led British forces at the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia said that the base was currently “easily defended”, but: “If the outer islands are under Mauritian control, China could quite happily start redeveloping them and installing all sorts of spying equipment that I think would affect the security of Diego Garcia”.