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UK foreign policy needs a tilt towards Indo-Pacific: Report
Think tank panel report suggests UK should consider creating a Special Envoy for the Indo-Pacific as a political appointment based in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
A key commission led by former prime minister of Canada Stephen Harper wants Britain to tilt towards the Indo-Pacific region as a democratic counterweight to China, complementing India’s vision articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 and reiterated by foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla earlier this month.
The report from the panel, convened by influential think-tank Policy Exchange, was released on Sunday night.
Highlighting the economic and security-based importance of the region, the report titled ‘A Very British Tilt: Towards a New UK Strategy in the Indo-Pacific Region’, said Indo-Pacific affairs will inevitably have a major impact on Britain’s strategy after Brexit. The region is also home to over 1.5 million British citizens, including thousands in India.
“As it contemplates its global interests post-Brexit, the UK could and should play a significantly larger role in the Indo-Pacific Region. Specifically, it should aim to foster a community of free and independent nations committed to upholding peace, stability, prosperity, and access in the region,” it said.
“By offering a vision of a common strategic future built around shared principles and focused on shared challenges, whether domestic or across borders, Britain can add to existing defence, trade, and political relationships and inspire new approaches. Such an expanded role for the UK represents a hard but realistic task, both from a delivery and from a resources point of view.”
The panel’s report is expected to feed into the ongoing major review of the UK’s foreign policy, defence and international development initiated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier this year. A fundamental tilt towards India and the Indo-Pacific region in post-Brexit UK has been envisaged in recent interactions by diplomats and British politicians.
Shringla, who set out India’s vision of the Indo-Pacific in an interaction at Policy Exchange, said India had “mainstreamed” the idea of Indo-Pacific in recent years and encouraged others to perceive the region accordingly. Germany, France and the Netherlands have recently set out their approach to the region.
“The UK, we hope and expect, will be next on the list, and too will finalise its Indo-Pacific strategy soon. Given this country’s characteristic wisdom and prodigious institutional memory, we hope too that the UK’s strategy will approximate India’s own and long-standing Indo-Pacific vision”, Shringla said, noting the think-tank’s “not-inconsiderable influence” in London.
The report called for enacting an ‘Indo-Pacific Charter’ to anchor a new approach to regional stability and prosperity, and recommended that the Johnson government establish an Indo-Pacific Sub-Committee on the National Security Council chaired by the Prime Minister.
Besides, it said Johnson should consider creating a Special Envoy for the Indo-Pacific as a political appointment based in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and promulgating a standalone ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy’ laying out its comprehensive approach to engaging with the region.
The panel which prepared the report included 18 current and former political leaders, military planners and others from the UK, Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. It is endorsed by former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe wrote in the report’s foreword: “A leading global power, Great Britain has a major role to play in the Indo-Pacific. As the world’s sixth largest economy, increased trade between the UK and Indo-Pacific nations will contribute to overall economic growth.”
“Britain can also work with countries throughout the region on upholding democratic values and supporting the multinational institutions that have developed in recent years. On the security front, the British military, and the Royal Navy in particular, will be a welcome presence in the seas of the Indo-Pacific.”
