Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his Department's policies on Latin America and the Caribbean of the visit of the President of Iran to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba in June 2023.

UK policy on Latin America and the Caribbean is not affected by the visit of Iranian President Raisi to Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Through the visit, the Iranian regime sought to deepen political, economic and trade relations with the ruling regimes in these three Latin American countries, all of which, like Iran, suffer from serious democratic shortcomings.

The UK continues to stand up for UK values and security interests. The Foreign Secretary visited Latin America in May and emphasised the need for respect for sovereignty, democracy and human rights, and to resist systemic threats to these values arising from destabilising states.