After my Saturday surgery in Corsham, it was a pleasure to join local residents at the Armed Forces Day Summer Street Fair in Corsham town centre. There was a large number of community stalls and an impressive military parade of current and former service personnel.

As a new Member of Parliament, I am very aware that the first duty of any Government is the protection of its citizens. Wiltshire is steeped in military history and is very much a part of the military’s present and future.

We live in a volatile world: massive upheavals in the Middle East, the grave threat from Islamic Fundamentalism and ISIS as well as the military brinkmanship of Putin along European borders, determined to expand the Russian state.

In such an uncertain world, I believe we need a strong defence force - keeping our Trident nuclear deterrent and maintaining proper levels of well-equipped troops. No country in Europe is playing such a strong global role in international security and I am so proud of the work that the UK is doing on operations against ISIS and in humanitarian missions throughout the world. We can only play such an important role if we maintain a £34bn defence budget, the fifth biggest in the world.

I will fight against any reductions in the MoD’s Budget and hope that we can find a way of maintaining our NATO commitment to an annual defence spending 2% GDP.

As well as the UKs strong military ‘hard’ power, we plan an equally vital diplomatic and humanitarian role. This means using our ‘soft’ power, diplomacy and engagement, to help weaker countries build stronger democracies and better law enforcement; to promote women’s rights and religious freedoms throughout the world.

Our commitment to international development is clear and I am pleased that we are now spending that 0.7% of our GDP in a smarter way. Not on countries with space programmes, but a better-focused budget aimed at conflict prevention and stabilisation as well as on reducing disease and suffering in the Third World.

Defence and international development are both vital in helping protect Britain’s security in the long term and the future security of the world. They should be viewed as different, but closely related and both equally important.

Closer to home, I am still awaiting constituent files from my predecessor. I had hoped to receive these before now but, disappointingly, so far I have only received one folder for one constituent. If you have requested that your confidential files are passed onto my office, please let me know by calling 01249 477 095 and my office can chase them for you.

I can be contacted about any local or national issue at any time on michelle.donelan.mp@parliament.uk or on (01249) 477095.