CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

FOREIGN AFFAIRS – PRESIDENT TRUMP & ATLANTIC ALLIANCE - 30 January 2017

FOREIGN AFFAIRS – PRESIDENT TRUMP & ATLANTIC ALLIANCE - 30 January 2017

Dr Julian Lewis: President Trump is what we might call a “known unknown”: we know that he will do and say unpredictable things, and often just as quickly abandon those positions. He will learn as he goes along, and what we have to remember is that our security and that of Europe depends on the Atlantic Alliance. So does my right hon. Friend agree that there must be no question of our refusing to welcome him to these shores, in the hope of setting him along the right path as soon as possible, to our mutual benefit?

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Boris Johnson): My right hon. Friend is entirely right, in the sense that the Prime Minister succeeded the other day in getting her message across about NATO and President Trump affirmed very strongly his commitment to that alliance; it is vital for our security, particularly the article 5 guarantee, and the new President is very much in the right place on that. [Interruption.] He said so. It is totally right, of course, that the incoming President of our closest and most important ally should be accorded the honour of a state visit. That is supported by this Government and the invitation has been extended by Her Majesty the Queen, quite properly.]