To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his US counterpart on support for the US sending troops to Taiwan to defend against potential Chinese invasion.
Bob Stewart: From the point of view of the security of Taiwan and of the South China sea, the Government are obviously worried about that, as they sent a fleet there and an aircraft carrier through, but we still haven’t got the—am I allowed to use the word?—balls to actually put our aircraft carrier west-about Taiwan rather than east-about. The aircraft carrier went east-about to avoid offending the Chinese, because east-about is in the Taiwan straits. We as a Parliament should demonstrate solidarity with Taiwan.