UK pushes Pacific trade talks

BANGKOK — The UK launched negotiations on Tuesday to join a trans-Pacific trade bloc as it looks to explore new opportunities following its departure from the European Union and strengthen its strategic interests in Asia.

The start of talks to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, made up of 11 counties with a combined half billion people, came as Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab met with his counterpart and other Vietnamese officials during his fifth visit to Southeast Asia in his current job.

Britain is also looking to attain “dialogue partnership” status with the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, as it pursues a “tilt” toward the Indo-Pacific region in response to China’s growing influence on the world stage that was recommended by a recent British government review of defence and foreign policy.

“The UK is committed to strengthening our friendship across the Indo-Pacific,” Mr Raab said ahead of the trip.

“We are demonstrating this through our commitment to join CPTPP, partner with ASEAN and invest more energy, time and effort in our bilateral relations in the region.”

The push comes as the region’s countries are looking for “options and alternatives” to China as their main source of capital and trading opportunities, said Euan Graham, senior fellow for Asia-Pacific security with the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ office in Singapore.

For Britain to be taken seriously it needs to show that it’s prepared to be engaged for the long-term, he said.

“It’s no good just saying you’re engaged from the safety of London, even in a pandemic you have to commit to face time in the region,” he said.

Beyond trade, Britain earlier this year dispatched a strike group led by the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier the HMS Queen Elizabeth on a 28-week deployment to Asia. It is also expected to announce the forward deployment of smaller Royal Navy vessels to the Indo-Pacific, Mr Graham said.

“That would be noticed in the region,” he said.

“It won’t change the balance of power, but it does demonstrate to China and others that this is not only a US-China bilateral dynamic.”

Picture: AP/HAU DINH From left, Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong ahead of a meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam on Tuesday, June 22, 2021.