Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the accuracy of the report of 9 May 2014 by the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies that a military factory in Pauk Township of the central Magwe Division, Burma, has some features that are consistent with a chemical plant.

The James Martin Centre report states that it is not possible to determine the nature of the facility in question. We are unable to make any further assessments at this stage.

We have made a concerted effort to encourage Burma to ratify their Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). I raised this most recently with Deputy Foreign Minister U That Kyaw on 12 June. We are working with the OPCW to offer practical support, and the UK National Authority to the CWC has offered to host a Burmese delegation later this year.