FORMER SOVIET UNION: REPUBLICS

HL Deb 21 January 1992 vol 534 cc20-1WA

Lord Kennet

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Which of the states of the former Soviet Union do they recognise and what is, in their view, the status in international law of the agreements reached at Minsk and elsewhere, setting up a Commonwealth of Independent States, and what, in their view, is the status of this Commonwealth.

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (The Earl of Caithness)

The Government recognise as sovereign independent states the following republics of the former Soviet Union: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. We do not recognise the Commonwealth of Independent States as a state. It is for the states of the commonwealth to determine the status in international law of agreements signed between them.