Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the geopolitical situation in the South China Sea.

I expressed our concern at reports of militarisation, coercion and intimidation in the South China Sea in Parliament on 3 September. We call on all parties to refrain from activity likely to raise tensions, including land reclamation, construction and militarisation. We urge all parties to exercise restraint and behave responsibly in accordance with their international obligations. Our position is longstanding: we do not take sides on the competing sovereignty claims. Our commitment is to international law, particularly to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and to freedom of navigation and overflight.

Given the importance we attach to UNCLOS, on 3 September I set out in full our legal analysis on the South China Sea for the first time. On 16 September, we issued a joint Note Verbale with France and Germany to the UN's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in response to assertions in Chinese Notes Verbale that we consider inconsistent with UNCLOS. Most recently, on 8 December, the UK made a national statement at the annual UN General Assembly debate on the Law of the Sea reiterating our legal position on the South China Sea. We?are?working?closely with allies and ASEAN partners to strengthen regional capacity on maritime law and security. This includes dialogues?on maritime law and Royal Navy training courses on maritime security.