Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations her Department has made to the (a) government of North Macedonian on improving prison conditions in that country prior to its application to join the European Union and (b) government of Russia on possible Russian interference in North Macedonian elections.

The UK supports North Macedonia through a range of projects, including to improve the functioning of prisons and electoral processes. I visited North Macedonia in October and discussed the steps the Government of North Macedonia is taking to achieve greater Euro-Atlantic integration with Deputy Prime Minister Dimitrov. I also discussed security issues, including recent interference from Russia, with Foreign Minister Osmani. The UK's approach to Russia more broadly is set out in the Integrated Review: the UK takes the threat from the Russian State extremely seriously and we will continue to call out Russian aggression.