Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has made a formal request for the Government of the People's Republic of China to state the legal basis for its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

The UK has consistently called on all parties to clarify the legal basis for their claims in the South China Sea. We continue to urge all parties to pursue their claims peacefully in accordance with international law, in particular the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), raised the situation in the South China Sea with China during his recent visit to Beijing on 5 January.