Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, for what reasons the UK Government was not present at a meeting between Russia, France, Germany and Turkey in Istanbul on 28 October 2018 to discuss a ceasefire in Syria.

​We support all efforts to end the Syria conflict. The Istanbul meeting was a one-off summit at Turkey's initiative with the aim of bridging differences between members of the Syria Small Group and the Astana guarantors (Russia, Iran, Turkey). We worked with France, Germany and Turkey in advance of the summit and hosted a meeting of the Syria Small Group on 29 October to agree next steps.