Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with his international counterparts on taking steps to ensure that people affected by blockages along the Lachin corridor are able to access (a) food, (b) medicine and (c) energy.

The UK Government has been vocal about the importance of re-opening the Lachin Corridor and publicly highlighted humanitarian concerns, including through multilateral fora such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the UN Security Council and we regularly engage with the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments, including on humanitarian issues. I [Minister Docherty] discussed the situation in Lachin during my visit to Azerbaijan in February and with Prime Minister Pashinyan on my visit to Armenia in May. The UK has a strong record of supporting humanitarian responses in this region and FCDO officials are in close contact with humanitarian agencies about the situation on the ground. Additionally the START FUND, a humanitarian response fund to whom the UK is a significant donor, allocated £350,000 to the region to support those effected by the closure of the Lachin Corridor.