Swann wants Anglo-Irish naval cooperation to counter ‘potential underwater threats’ from Russian vessels

Transcript

00:00The Cyprus State Statement says that the response is to strengthen our response to ensure Russian

00:05ships cannot operate in secrecy near UK territory. The Cyprus State will be aware of an occasion

00:13just over a year ago when a Russian submarine was actually chased from the harbour in Cork

00:19by the British Navy because the Irish Navy doesn't have the sonar equipment to detect

00:24those potential underwater threats. Those threats were about that 97% of the world's

00:30communication internet traffic. Can I ask the Secretary of State what communication

00:35or interaction he's had with the Irish Government and indeed the Irish Armed Forces in regards

00:39to strengthening our co-operation with them to ensure that the west coast of these British

00:44islands are protected?

00:47We don't and we won't comment on specific operational details like that. Needless to

00:57say however that we work very closely with the Irish Government on such matters and recently

01:06our Chief of the Defence Staff met his counterpart from Ireland.