John Baron MP: Ukraine means new battle for democracy

MP again calls for stronger defence

During yesterday’s Opposition Day debate in the House of Commons, MPs debated countering Russian aggression and tackling illicit finance.

In the Chamber, John said,

“We need to do everything we can to provide the Ukrainian Government with all the means required to defend themselves…NATO must also continue its programme of beefing up deployments across eastern Europe, the high north and the Black Sea. We must show Russia that NATO is serious about protecting its members…”

“We need to be clear that we need strong defence. One reason I opposed recent interventions over the past 20 years is because I felt that they distracted us from the real business of countering traditional state-on-state threats…including Russia and, increasingly, an assertive China…Jaw-jaw is most effective when supported and backed up by strong armed forces, because potential adversaries then listen.”

“….[We have now entered a] new era…with regard to the battle for democracy. We believed that democracy would sweep the field after the Cold War…but democracy is a fragile concept…We have to nurture, encourage and protect it. But what are we doing? We have a weak foreign policy when it comes to potential aggressors, and not just potential ones; when there is an invasion of a sovereign country we are debating quite petty sanctions. We need to step up to the plate.”

John said afterwards,

“As well as supporting Ukraine and our NATO allies, we also need to do all we can to assist in the humanitarian crisis which will inevitably follow this invasion. We need to question why the international community got this so wrong given many of us have been warning of Russia since its invasion of Georgia in 2008.”

Notes to Editors:

• John’s full speech is available online at: https://bit.ly/35qJAMF.