Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the People's Republic of China's Nine-dash line in the South China Sea on the maritime sovereignty of Commonwealth nations.

We are concerned about China's excessive maritime claims in the South China Sea, which have been ruled inconsistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The UK opposes any maritime claims which are not founded in UNCLOS. We take no sides in sovereignty disputes but we encourage parties to settle disputes peacefully through existing legal mechanisms, particularly UNCLOS.