Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to improve (a) diplomatic and (b) development cooperation with Pacific Island nations.

The UK has resident diplomatic missions in six Pacific Island Countries (PICs) and we are also non-resident accredited to six additional PICs. The UK is committed to working with PICs to support their priorities, as set out in the Pacific Islands Forum's 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent. The UK is supporting PICs in areas such as regional security, economic resilience and growth and tackling the climate and nature crisis. Examples include: improving and enhancing regional maritime security; strengthening preparedness, response and resilience to humanitarian crises; and investment into PICs through multilateral and other funds to achieve better infrastructure and development outcomes.