Member

I will not go on to talk about the Pelindaba treaty because that has been well covered by my noble friend Lord Lilley, but I will just ask: how can nuclear submarines or aircraft carrying nuclear explosive devices use Diego Garcia without compromising that treaty? This is a perfect storm of twofold danger: either international pressure—infinitely more pressure than the advisory opinions of a UN board on which the UK has a veto—is brought to bear to prohibit AUKUS partners from using Diego Garcia for operations, which in essence removes Diego Garcia from the AUKUS programme; or foreign adversaries, such as Russia, Iran or China, use this new circumstance of us using or housing nuclear weapons in Diego Garcia as justification to thwart the Pelindaba Treaty and install, station or transport their own nuclear weapons across the African continent. For example, South Africa is a strong ally of Russia, Iran and China through the BRICS partnership and, this week, those various countries are conducting a significant joint naval exercise.