Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of whether Pakistan's PNS Zulfiqar frigate's scheduled exercise, Arabian Monsoon, with the Russian navy in the Baltic Sea after visiting St Petersburg on 22-27 July 2021 represents a potential challenge to NATO in that sea.

The NATO Alliance remains the cornerstone of Euro-Atlantic defence. This includes ensuring security and stability in the Baltic region. We are mindful of Russia's persistent hostile actions towards NATO and our Eastern Allies, and are confident in the effectiveness of NATO's routine deterrence activity in the region, which includes air policing and enhanced Forward Presence deployments of personnel.

The UK continues to value the role that Pakistan has played as a NATO Partner. This includes training and cooperation with the Alliance on areas of mutual interest, including stability and counter extremism in Afghanistan, civil preparedness and disaster response and counter narcotics. The Royal Navy via HMS Montrose also participated in Exercise AMAN 21 (February 2021) in the port of Karachi and off the coast of Southern Pakistan.

PNS ZULFIQAR will visit Portsmouth next week. Baroness Goldie will attend a reception on board and it will then conduct Exercise WHITE STAR with HMS ARGYLL on 14 July.