Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the situation of (a) the Buddhist community and (b) other religious minorities in Myanmar; and what discussions he has had with his Laotian counterpart on ASEAN's efforts to tackle the (i) violence and (ii) humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.

The UK is committed to defending freedom of religion or belief for all. We are aware of the continued vulnerability of religious minorities in Myanmar, and we condemn identify-based violence on any ground. The UK continues to raise our concerns about ethnic and religious discrimination in multilateral fora, notably the UN. We continue to co-fund the UN's Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar and the Myanmar Witness programme, which collect evidence of human rights violations, including identity-based violence. As a Dialogue-Partner the UK continues to support ASEAN's regional leadership on the crisis in Myanmar, including the efforts of Laotian Chair and Special Envoy H.E Alounkeo Kittikhoun. In July, the Foreign Secretary attended the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Vientiane and met Laos' Minister of Foreign Affairs, Saleumxay Kommasith, where they discussed the crisis in Myanmar.