Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen relations with Commonwealth partners.

The UK is working with our Commonwealth partners to deliver on the commitments made at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali. We want to see a Commonwealth which delivers greater benefits for all member states across a range of policy priorities, including climate, human rights, health, education and security. We are building long-term partnerships on shared priorities such as on trade, where we have secured Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with Australia and New Zealand and are negotiating further FTAs with Canada and India. The UK has also secured Economic Partnerships Agreements covering 27 Commonwealth African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.