UK aims for AUKUS style deal with India
NEW FOREIGN SECRETARY TRUSS OUTLINES ‘POSITIVE STRATEGY’ IN INDO-PACIFIC REGION
THE UK wants to strike trade and security agreements with India and other democratic countries in the strategic Indo-Pacific region to challenge the influence of “malign actors and authoritarian states”, Britain’s new foreign secretary Liz Truss said last Sunday (3).
As international trade secretary, Truss was in charge of talks with India on a future Free Trade Agreement (FTA) until her recent promotion, when she replaced Dominic Raab as the foreign secretary.
Truss said she was keen to strike more agreements along the lines of AUKUS – the trilateral security alliance that Australia, the UK and the US recently signed.
AUKUS is widely seen as an effort to counter China’s influence in the contested South China Sea. It was announced by US president Joe Biden, UK prime minister Boris Johnson and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison last month.
In an interview with the Sunday Times (4) since taking charge at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Truss said, “We want to work with our friends and allies to create more economic agreements and security agreements.
“AUKUS is about protecting trade routes and shipping routes specifically with Australia, but I want to look at arrangements with India, with Japan and with Canada to expand that security support in the same types of areas.
“Some countries we will be able to enter deeper security arrangements with than others.
“One thing I know from being trade secretary for two years is that the UK is hugely trusted. People know we are reliable and when we say we will do something we do it, we follow the rules,” she said.
Truss added that Britain would seek alliances with “freedom-loving” democracies to challenge the influence of “malign actors and authoritarian states”. She said security pacts could augment trade deals, pointing to Britain’s request to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Asked about such moves being directed at containing the influence of China in the region, the foreign secretary said it was about the “advancement of freedom”.
“It’s a positive strategy to engage other countries who want to see a free enterprise, open, free trading world succeed. It’s a positive strategy to build economic strength,” she said.
Johnson told MPs last month the AUKUS agreement was “not intended to be adversarial” to China, but said the UK was “determined to defend international law”.
Truss also told the newspaper: “The prime minister is a great proponent of global Britain.
“He wants us out there making a positive case for our values on the world stage, but also delivering for people across the United Kingdom.
“What we did at trade, striking trade deals with 68 countries, was all about bringing opportunities across the UK, whether it’s for our whisky industry, our car industry, our digital industry.”