Defence in the World

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 2:07 pm on 17 October 2002.

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Photo of Geoff Hoon Geoff Hoon Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence 2:07, 17 October 2002

I am about to deal with the development of our policy in the wake of the events of 11 September. It is clear that the basic assumptions in the strategic defence review were right—the need to be able to get forces quickly into a crisis, whether it is provoked by a conventional armed force or by terrorism. Clearly, we have refined those assumptions in the light of what took place on 11 September—the hon. Gentleman and I have debated this matter before—and I intend to deal with that in a moment.