Hague vows foreign policy revamp
Source: Agencies |
July 2, 2010, Friday
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BRITISH Foreign Secretary William Hague vowed yesterday to woo allies left neglected in London's rush to cozy up to the White House, promising a sweeping overhaul of the country's "patchy" foreign policy.
In a first major speech since the country's Conservative-led coalition government took office in May, Hague said he'd reach out to nations who felt snubbed under the Labour government led by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Brown and Blair's courting of successive US presidents over 13 years in office had led some links with historic partners "to wither or stagnate" and seen a dramatic fall in Britain's clout in the European Union, Hague said.
"I think sometimes British politicians and British leaders have been so preoccupied by those ties, that they have neglected to build the wider relationships in the world," Hague said. "From now on we will not neglect the wider world."
Countries, including India, Brazil and the Gulf states, have claimed that Britain only came calling in times of global crisis - or when they needed to secure a key United Nations vote, he said.
"In recent years Britain's approach to building relationships with new and emerging powers has been ad-hoc and patchy, giving rise to the frequent complaint," Hague said, speaking at London's Foreign Office. "This weakens our ability to forge agreement on difficult issues affecting the lives of millions around the world."
Prime Minister David Cameron's government has vowed to build a so-called "new special relationship" with India, suggesting it sees future trading opportunities with emerging markets as likely to be as important as ties to Washington.
Britain will send government ministers and the heads of leading United Kingdom businesses on trade delegations across the world in a bid to increase exports, Treasury chief George Osborne said this week. Hague said new government task forces are seeking to improve bilateral links.
Though Hague said bonds between London and Washington were "unbreakable" and represented Britain's most important bilateral relationship, he added that both he and Cameron believed the partnership should be "solid but not slavish."
Cameron and President Barack Obama held friendly talks at the G8 and G20 summits in Canada last month, but the UK leader defended BP and asked the US to give a better indication of the likely final cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Michael Cox, a foreign policy analyst at London's Chatham House think tank, said Hague was positioning Britain for a world where the US is no longer the lone dominant force, and Washington looks beyond Europe for allies. He said Hague's plan may in part be a response to a belief in the US that "there is a real shift in power going on, that Europe is in crisis and Asia is the future."
Hague pledged to continue pressing Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions and said Britain expects its troops to remain in Afghanistan until about 2014 or 2015.
In a first major speech since the country's Conservative-led coalition government took office in May, Hague said he'd reach out to nations who felt snubbed under the Labour government led by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Brown and Blair's courting of successive US presidents over 13 years in office had led some links with historic partners "to wither or stagnate" and seen a dramatic fall in Britain's clout in the European Union, Hague said.
"I think sometimes British politicians and British leaders have been so preoccupied by those ties, that they have neglected to build the wider relationships in the world," Hague said. "From now on we will not neglect the wider world."
Countries, including India, Brazil and the Gulf states, have claimed that Britain only came calling in times of global crisis - or when they needed to secure a key United Nations vote, he said.
"In recent years Britain's approach to building relationships with new and emerging powers has been ad-hoc and patchy, giving rise to the frequent complaint," Hague said, speaking at London's Foreign Office. "This weakens our ability to forge agreement on difficult issues affecting the lives of millions around the world."
Prime Minister David Cameron's government has vowed to build a so-called "new special relationship" with India, suggesting it sees future trading opportunities with emerging markets as likely to be as important as ties to Washington.
Britain will send government ministers and the heads of leading United Kingdom businesses on trade delegations across the world in a bid to increase exports, Treasury chief George Osborne said this week. Hague said new government task forces are seeking to improve bilateral links.
Though Hague said bonds between London and Washington were "unbreakable" and represented Britain's most important bilateral relationship, he added that both he and Cameron believed the partnership should be "solid but not slavish."
Cameron and President Barack Obama held friendly talks at the G8 and G20 summits in Canada last month, but the UK leader defended BP and asked the US to give a better indication of the likely final cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Michael Cox, a foreign policy analyst at London's Chatham House think tank, said Hague was positioning Britain for a world where the US is no longer the lone dominant force, and Washington looks beyond Europe for allies. He said Hague's plan may in part be a response to a belief in the US that "there is a real shift in power going on, that Europe is in crisis and Asia is the future."
Hague pledged to continue pressing Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions and said Britain expects its troops to remain in Afghanistan until about 2014 or 2015.
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