Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the UN and the governments of Pakistan, India and China on steps towards a peaceful resolution to the territorial dispute in Kashmir.

The long standing position of the UK is that it is for India and Pakistan to find a lasting resolution to the situation in Kashmir, taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people. It is not for the UK to prescribe a solution or to act as a mediator. We follow developments in the region closely and we encourage both India and Pakistan to maintain positive dialogue, but the pace and scope of this is for them to determine. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), discussed the situation in Kashmir when he met with the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in November 2014 and when he met with the Indian Minister for External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj in March 2015.