Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the role of Russia in respect of the tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We reject recent attempts by Russia to undermine the High Representative in BiH and to close his Office prematurely. These efforts undermine regional security. We will continue to ensure that we provide effective support to BiH in implementing domestic reforms and tackling challenges to peace and stability. The Foreign Secretary met BiH Foreign Minister Turkovic at the OSCE Ministerial meeting on 2 December, and High Representative Schmidt in London also on 2 December to underline this support. I [Minister Morton] also met with High Representative Schmidt and raised this issue in a Backbench Business Committee debate on Bosnia and Herzegovina on 2 December. The UK's approach to Russia more widely is clearly 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.