Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support his Department has provided to the Maldives Government to help improve that country's democratic processes.

Ministers and the British Ambassador to the Maldives regularly engage with the Government of Maldives about improving the country's democratic processes. On 19 April, I wrote to the Foreign Minister to request that his Government take all steps necessary to re-establish democratic norms, restore the independence of Parliament and the courts, release all political prisoners and engage in a genuine dialogue with leaders of Opposition parties. I also noted that the UK stood ready to support Maldives in taking these steps. We continue to call on the Government of Maldives to respect fundamental freedoms, including freedom of assembly and speech. Most recently, the UK raised Maldives in our UN Human Rights Council statement on 19 June 2018.