South China Sea: Shipping
(asked on 3rd September 2026) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he has taken to defend freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
Answered by
Louise Sandher-Jones
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
This question was answered on 8th September 2026
The UK is committed to international law, the primacy of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and to freedom of navigation and overflight. We raise the importance of Freedom of Navigation regularly in bilateral and multilateral engagements.
Most recently, HMS TAMAR carried out Freedom of Navigation activity alongside the Royal Australian Navy on 1 September 2026 in the South China Sea.