Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) implications for his policies of the level of Chinese influence in Mauritius and (b) danger posed by that influence to UK interests in the Indian Ocean.

I refer to my right hon. Friend for Berwick-upon-Tweed's comments during the Westminster Hall Debate on 7 December 2022. It is worth noting that Mauritius is one of only two African countries that has not signed up to China's Belt and Road Initiative. Mauritius signed a Free Trade Agreement with China in 2019.