Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when the UK will ratify the Republic of North Macedonia's accession to NATO; and if he will make a statement.
We welcome the signature of the NATO Accession Protocol for Macedonia, which took place on 6 February in Brussels. We will shortly be taking forward the procedure for UK ratification. This will involve laying the Accession Protocol before Parliament for 21 sitting days' scrutiny under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. Once this process is complete, and provided there are no objections, the UK can proceed to the next stage by depositing its instrument of ratification. I will make a formal written statement to Parliament regarding the new constitutional name - the Republic of North Macedonia.