Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Chinese counterpart on the harassment of the West Capella, a ship operated by a UK-registered company.

The British Government's position is to oppose any action which raises tensions in the South China Sea. We regularly make this position clear to the Chinese authorities and encourage all parties, including China, to settle their disputes peacefully through the existing legal mechanisms, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and to uphold existing Arbitration rulings.