Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the presentation by his Icelandic counterpart as chairman of the Committee of Ministers at the Council of Europe on 25 April 2023.

We welcome the recent speech the Icelandic Foreign Minister made at the Parliamentary Assembly to the Council of Europe regarding the Icelandic priorities at the upcoming Council of Europe Head of State Summit later this month and agree that a key priority for the Summit is continued support to Ukarine and opposition to Russia's aggression. The Summit will be an opportunity to re-invigorate Europe's oldest multilateral organisation so that it plays a strong role in strengthening and securing democracy across Europe and ensure support for Ukraine, through continued pressure on Russia.