Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 9 January 2017 to Question 58505, whether the meeting on 15 December 2016 was his only one with the Russian ambassador on the humanitarian situation in Aleppo in 2016.

There was one meeting in 2016, referenced in the aforementioned Question, between the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) and the Russian Ambassador. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) did not meet the Russian Ambassador in 2016 prior to his current role. Minister for Europe and the Americas Sir Alan Duncan had an in-depth discussion on Syria in August 2016 with the Russian Ambassador during which he expressed the UK's concern about the situation in Aleppo and our shared interest in working together on a political settlement in Syria.

In addition to bilateral engagement, we have regular dialogue with Russia on Syria in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and have discussed the humanitarian situation in Aleppo on a number of occasions. This includes discussions prior to UNSC Resolutions 2328, 2332, and most recently, 2336, which was adopted on 20 December and requested the UN monitor evacuations from eastern Aleppo.