“It’s a very exciting moment for us,” West, whose official title is Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Indo-Pacific, told the Herald.Her role means she is the member of the Government responsible for this region, although she sits under the Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who is the equivalent of our foreign minister.
“We have the opportunity for a period of stability this term after quite a bumpy period in politics – some of it from the Ukraine war, Covid, the global financial crash, and austerity, but also the Brexit debate, which was a big question about identity that took up a lot of bandwidth for MPs so hopefully now we can draw a nice fresh breath,” she said.
West, who was born in Australia but has lived in Britain since the 1990s, said the country’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) agreement would see increased engagement in the region.
New Zealand has expressed an interest in signing up to pillar two of the deal, which involves developing non-nuclear military technology.
West said no formal decisions had been made about inviting other partners, but she hinted at concern the group would grow too large to deliver what it was intended for.
“One thing I’ve noticed about defence is the more partners you have, the longer it takes to get projects off the ground. There’s a lot of legalities,” West said.
She cited the example of the Global Combat Air Programme, a joint effort between Britain, Japan and Italy to develop new fighter aircraft.
“Suddenly everyone else wants to join. The trouble is you start off with a legal concept, you do all the work around that and with the Parliamentary time and everything it takes another few months to get through ... we have to be realistic,” she said.
British government minister Catherine West meets with Climate Change Minister Simon Watts. Photo /
“In terms of formal moves around pillar two, I think that will take quite some time,” she said. It was also too early to say what the financial contribution required to sign up to pillar two would be.
Britain is currently undertaking a defence review, but West said the position of Aukus in the defence portfolio is secure.
She said the Aukus partners and potential pillar two partners were all “friends and allies” and that would not change.
West travelled to the Pacific Islands Forum this week, flying as a guest of the New Zealand delegation on the NZDF 757. West, a keen fisher, joked she would try to secure an invitation to go fishing with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon when she next visits New Zealand.
She had little to say on the crisis in New Caledonia.
“It’s very much a French issue,” West said, but she was “keen to listen” to the forum lay out how the Pacific wanted to resolve the issue.
West attended Question Time on Tuesday, where MPs discussed the current energy crisis. The British Government is looking at implementing a ban on new oil and gas exploration similar to New Zealand’s.
She said her experience of the current energy crisis, which the New Zealand Government partly blames on the ban, has not put her off.
“The important thing is to really push on renewables,” she said.
West said she had no concerns “at this stage” that changes in climate policy by the coalition breached the Free Trade Agreement reached with Britain under the last Government, which included stringent environmental chapters
Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.
