U.Ok. Overseas Minister Dominic Raab arrives in Hanoi, Vietnam, on the night of June 21, 2021.
Credit score: Twitter/Dominic Raab
Final evening, British Overseas Minister Dominic Raab arrived within the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, the primary cease on a three-nation tour of Southeast Asia designed to additional the U.Ok.’s latest “Indo-Pacific tilt.”
Raab was scheduled to carry talks with Vietnamese officers and to talk at an occasion held by the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), earlier than flying on to Cambodia and Singapore.
“Simply landed in #Vietnam at first of a go to to South-East Asia go to to debate the UK’s Indo-Pacific tilt,” Raab tweeted on arrival in Hanoi. He added that he was “trying ahead to discussing commerce, safety and tackling challenges equivalent to local weather change, COVID-19 & critical organized crime.”
Whereas a gathering with Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen was canceled after the chief was uncovered to COVID-19 and entered quarantine as a precaution, Raab will meet along with his counterpart Prak Sokhonn and different officers. He may even pay visits to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Documentation Middle of Cambodia, which researches the murderous 1975-79 rule of the Khmer Rouge.
In an announcement, the Cambodian Overseas Ministry mentioned it hoped the go to would strengthen bilateral ties, “and be one other step ahead in multilateral cooperation throughout the ASEAN framework.”
Raab will then transfer on to Singapore, the place is ready the place he’s to satisfy with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and enterprise leaders.
As Raab prompt in his tweet, the journey displays a broad British reengagement with Asia, as a part of London’s try and remake itself as a buccaneering mercantile powerhouse underneath the rubric of “World Britain.”
The U.Ok. is in search of to develop into a dialogue associate of the 10-member ASEAN bloc, and likewise has ambitions of becoming a member of the Complete and Progressive Settlement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership commerce pact that was negotiated by former U.S. President Barack Obama. In January, Worldwide Commerce Secretary Liz Truss informed the BBC, “In future it’s going to be Asia-Pacific international locations specifically the place the massive markets are, the place rising middle-class markets are, for British merchandise.”
Because the Related Press famous, the go to comes after Britain introduced the broad outlines of a free commerce cope with Australia, the primary that London has negotiated from scratch since its withdrawal from the European Union. This got here after the U.Ok. brokered free commerce agreements with Singapore and Vietnam on the finish of final yr, a part of what the federal government describes as a technique of forming “a community of commerce agreements with dynamic economies far past Europe, making the U.Ok. a hub for providers and digital commerce.” This seemingly explains the explanations for Raab’s journey to the 2 nations this week, whereas there has additionally been speak of a free commerce pact between Phnom Penh and London. Raab has beforehand described post-Brexit U.Ok. as “energetic champions of free and open commerce.”
The U.Ok.’s financial flip towards Asia has naturally additionally concerned an growing strategic deal with the area. The federal government’s latest Built-in Assessment of Safety, Protection, Growth and Overseas Coverage really helpful that the U.Ok. “tilt” its focus towards the “Indo-Pacific” area in response to China’s “growing worldwide assertiveness.” The evaluation pledged the U.Ok. to “pursue deeper engagement within the Indo-Pacific in assist of shared prosperity and regional stability, with stronger diplomatic and buying and selling ties.”
As a part of this push, the U.Ok. final month dispatched a strike group led by the Royal Navy’s flagship plane provider the HMS Queen Elizabeth on a 28-week deployment that may take it via the disputed South China Sea. Whereas Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the deployment just isn’t centered on anyone nation, the clear subtext of the deployment is China: specifically its growing maritime assertiveness.
Whether or not or not the U.Ok. fulfills the guarantees of “World Britain” – and there may be greater than a puff of scorching air and self-congratulation concerning the enterprise – its elevated engagement with Southeast Asia is prone to be welcomed warmly, if discreetly, within the area’s capitals.
On the one hand, many Southeast Asian governments are nervous and cautious concerning the potential for the escalation of tensions between China and Western powers within the South China Sea and elsewhere. On the opposite, in a area the place range is the important thing to a nutritious diet of overseas relations, many countries will little doubt place themselves to profit vastly from elevated strategic and financial ties with the UK.