---

Foreign Affairs and Defence

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that important, grave and serious matter. I hoped to come to it later, but I shall respond to my hon. Friend directly. This morning, the British ambassador in Tashkent travelled to the eastern part of Uzbekistan. I have not yet received a full response from him, but he travelled there with other ambassadors. We want first to be able to establish categorically what has happened. News reports that are already emerging are extremely serious. The situation has been discussed by the United States Secretary of State and the Foreign Secretary during discussions in Washington overnight, and I expect there to be further discussions with our European partners at the General Affairs and External Relations Council on Monday. Obviously, we cannot prejudge the international community’s response to the facts once they are established.