Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether the UK has ratified Montenegro's accession to NATO; and if he will make a statement.

The Government laid Montenegro's Protocol of Accession before Parliament on 29 June 2016, under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. Following the summer recess, the Protocol completed its Parliamentary scrutiny period on 15 September. We are currently finalising the process to confirm the UK's acceptance of the Protocol and allow us to deposit it with the US Government (depositary for the Treaty), as stipulated by the North Atlantic Treaty. We expect to complete this shortly and look forward to welcoming Montenegro as the 29th NATO Ally, once all current NATO Allies have ratified according to their own national processes.