Oral Answers to Questions

Henry Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 4th September 2018 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Duncan]

I hope to make the hon. Lady’s comments of even greater value by saying that I will have such conversations and that I will put in calls to Colombia. I know that our mission in Colombia, in Bogota, is always doing its best to make representations of this sort.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

T9. I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his appointment as Foreign Secretary two months ago. I would be grateful if he committed to reviewing the resettlement of the Chagos islands, the British Indian Ocean Territory, by the native islanders.

[Sir Alan Duncan]

As my hon. Friend appreciates we do have a long-standing policy on this issue and we do not recognise the sovereignty claim of the Republic of Mauritius over Chagos archipelago. We very much regret that Mauritius is taking its case to the International Court of Justice. That case started yesterday, so it would be more appropriate for us to wait until the outcome of any judgment, which should conclude this week.