U.K. sees ‘generational mission’ in Indo-Pacific, not short term shift: U.K. Minister Catherine West

“For us, this is a generational mission, a long term strategic posture, not just a short term shift to the sake of sound bites,” U.K. Foreign Office Minister for the Indo-Pacific Catherine West said

More than four months after the U.K.’s  Labour government came to power, it has declared that the U.K.’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific is long term. The U.K.’s Indo-Pacific Minister Catherine West outlined the position of the U.K. government at the second Indo-Pacific Conference organized by the High Commissions of India, Australia and Singapore in London, in collaboration with the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

In 2021, the Boris Johnson led Conservative government had said that the U.K. would undertake a “tilt” towards the Indo-Pacific in its defence, foreign and security policy.

“For us, this is a generational mission, a long term strategic posture, not just a short term shift to the sake of sound bites,” Ms. West said at the Indian High Commission in London on Monday (November 25, 2024) morning.

The Indo-Pacific was crucial to the U.K. for three reasons: global growth, tackling climate change and strengthening national and global security.

“We want a free and open Indo Pacific underpinned by the rules-based international system, because rules matter,” Ms. West said. She also highlighted the “centrality” of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) — a concept that is supported by many  countries and groups with interests in the region — such as India, the U.S., the other two Quad countries (i.e., Australia and Japan) and the EU.

“Despite the distance, the security and prosperity of the Indo Pacific and Euro-Atlantic are inseparable,” the Minister said, citing the example of North Korea helping Russia in its war with Ukraine.

India was uniquely placed  to help shift the dialogue and make progress on climate change and sustainable development, said Ms. West, who has just concluded a two-day visit to India last week.

In India, she had discussed climate, technology, education and health, she said, noting that the University of Southampton was opening a campus in India, in New Delhi.

Ms. West reiterated U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s position that a U.K.-India trade deal was the “floor, and not a ceiling” of the U.K.’s ambitions for the U.K.-India relationship.

“There is significant potential for much closer defense collaboration over the coming years,” she said, emphasizing that the U.K. was co-leading, with India, the maritime security pillar of India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative.

On the U.K.’s approach to China, Ms. West said it would be mixture of ‘compete, cooperate and challenge’ [i.e., the “three C’s approach”]. Where applicable, the U.K. would seek cooperation with China , as a fellow permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (such as in growing trade and on climate action) and challenge Beijing when it felt its security and national interests were being undermined. Ms. West criticised China’s actions curbing democratic freedoms in Hong Kong, a British colony until 1997.

Countries were increasingly challenged by the fact that notions of security and prosperity were now global in nature, India’s High Commissioner to the U.K., Vikram Doraiswami said.

“We have to talk these challenges in the context of connectedness between the Euro-Atlantic region and the Indo-Pacific region,” he said. The High Commissioner described India’s ‘Act East Policy’, its partnerships with Japan and Australia and said it was natural for New Delhi to be looking to deepen partnerships in the Euro-Atlantic. He suggested that the U.K. was a natural partner in this endeavour, owing to its historical connections with India and the region.

Published - November 25, 2024 07:49 pm IST