Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the address by Sviatlana Tsihanouskaya at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 20 June 2023.

The UK stands in solidarity with the Belarusian people, who have shown immense courage in the face of relentless repression by the Lukashenko regime. We are clear that this regime neither speaks nor acts in the name of the overwhelming majority of Belarusians, and we continue to work with likeminded partners to put pressure on the regime publicly and privately for their human rights violations. We also take very seriously our responsibilities to Belarusian nationals in the UK, and the Security Minister's Defending Democracy Taskforce is driving forward work in response to threats of foreign interference, including transnational repression.