Tag: James Cleverly

Good morning Ministers, Ambassadors, Friends, Colleagues.

Welcome to today’s OECD Ministerial Council Meeting. Our theme “Securing a resilient future: shared values and global partnerships” is both timely and important.

I’m honoured to represent the UK as chair of this year’s meeting.

And we have put together an ambitious, forward-looking agenda that addresses our most serious and immediate concerns.

The global pandemic demonstrated the importance of resilient and diversified supply chains and trading systems. Climate change and the loss of biodiversity are serious problems for all of us.

Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine threatens to upend the international order and that is why it is so important that it must fail and that our friends in Ukraine must win.

I have just returned from Ukraine, from Kyiv, and I saw a country under arms, I saw a country defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity. But I also saw a country defending the principles that underpin peace, security and economic development in the post-war era. That is why our support to them must endure and that is why their success must be guaranteed.

The OECD is well positioned to promote unity between allies and to encourage a coherent response to the acute and long-term issues that we face.

Today’s Ministerial Council Meeting is special, is unique. We have opened our discussions to non-members and we’re honoured by the participation of a wider range of global voices. And our agenda addresses their shared concerns and priorities. And we will have better discussions as a result of their participation.

This year opens a new chapter in the OECD’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific. Underpinned by our new Strategic Framework, we all recognise the region’s importance for global growth, critical supply chains, digital transition and resilience, and, of course, climate action.

But we must not ignore the challenges that we face today.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is always at the forefront of our minds. And we must support Ukraine to win, and we must support its recovery efforts once it does. And we look forward to hosting the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London in a few weeks’ time.

This war continues to imperil the world’s economy by disrupting global supply chains and unleashing a wave of inflation driven by high fuel and food prices. And vulnerable countries now face severe risk of food insecurity and, in some instances, famine.

So we must work closely together to strengthen global economic resilience to current and future shocks. And the OECD has the right policy tools and the right analysis to support these efforts. And we’re promoting supply chain resilience, better international tax rules, climate action, and, of course, gender equality.

We should remember that free markets offer the best and quickest route to prosperity. And gender equality is best advanced through free markets. Free trade inevitably benefits service industries and small business. And not only are they the life blood of local communities as well as national economies, they also disproportionately employ women. And so, therefore, freer trade disproportionately benefits women and when women are empowered socially and economically, everybody wins.

And my colleague, Kemi Badenoch, the UK Business and Trade Secretary, will explore how smart trade and investment policies can deliver global economic resilience and stimulate growth.

We often say that a rising tide raises all boats. Probably more accurate to say that a rising tide can lift all boats, and we need to work together to ensure that it does.

Our world is changing rapidly. New technologies offer people across the globe new freedoms, greater access to knowledge, better opportunities economically.

Artificial Intelligence-enabled technologies diagnose disease; virtual learning helps students who would otherwise be excluded from education; improved access to renewable energy will power our clean energy transition.

But technology also has the potential to undermine our safety, undermine our security, and undermine our democratic values. So we must address the risks by working together to ensure technology is designed, developed and deployed, and governed ethically, safely and reliably, so that we can harness the advantages and mitigate the risks.

The OECD Global Forum on Technology, which the UK is proud to support alongside Spain and the United States of America, had its inaugural meeting yesterday, chaired by my good friend and colleague Chloe Smith. And the Forum will find opportunities and mitigate the challenges of immersive technologies, quantum and synthetic biology.

Innovation ushers our societies towards new frontiers. It unlocks previously inconceivable improvements.

It will be central to ensuring we can adapt to environmental change and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

And our discussions on Future Frontiers and Energy Futures will explore these issues in more depth, and I look forward to hearing the outcome of the panel chaired by my colleague Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Energy and Net Zero.

The International Energy Agency and the OECD are highly regarded thought leaders in this field and that’s why it’s great to have Director-General Dr Fatih Birol and Secretary-General Mathias Cormann on the panel, alongside the Minister from Sweden.

All our fortunes depend on a stable and peaceful international order. By working together we give ourselves the best chance to create an environment where everybody can prosper.

The OECD is a cornerstone of the multilateral order. We are a community of like-minded members, committed to free markets, to democracy, to the rule of law, to free trade, to human rights, to sustainability, to gender equality, and, of course, to fairness. These are the values that have brought us together today.

So let this meeting renew our commitment to global partnerships, to extend the reach of the OECD, and, by doing so, to build a prosperous future trade for the whole world.

It is a genuine pleasure now to take the opportunity to invite the Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to say a few words on behalf of Ukraine.

Thank you.

Thank you for hosting me.

It’s an honour to be here. Our setting has so much resonance for Chile’s recent political history. Constructed by volunteers during the Allende presidency. Requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence in the Pinochet era. Re-born as a Cultural Centre, it now bears the name of one of two Chilean Nobel prize winners, Gabriela Mistral.

Two hundred years ago, a fierce revolutionary struggle was raging on both sides of the Atlantic. A battle of ideas in which liberty, self-determination and representative government set themselves against absolutism and autocracy.

It reached its dramatic climax here. In Latin America. Under the inspirational leadership of figures like Simon Bolivar, Bernardo O’Higgins, José de San Martín or Miguel Hidalgo.

Latin America’s struggle for independence was surely one of the most uplifting episodes of the momentous revolutionary era that laid the foundations of the modern world. A tale of hardship, perseverance, exile and betrayal. Of stunning victories and extraordinary sacrifice. Of inspiration, leadership and unity.

From the very beginning, my great and gifted predecessor, George Canning, foresaw that Latin America would hold the balance of power in world politics.

And this is also the continent that gave birth to the extraordinary genre that is magical realism. And imagine if I were giving this speech in the magical realist tradition. I would tell you that George Canning appeared to me in my dreams, taking the form of a mighty, powerful jaguar, conveying a message for me to pass to you.

Although actually, that didn’t happen. But Canning’s wisdom about ‘the New World being called into existence to redress the balance of the Old’ rings as true today as when he said it in 1826.

The allure and romance of this continent drew many others, including thousands of battle-hardened veterans who volunteered in the British Legions. Men like James Rooke, after whom a battalion is named in the Colombian army. Or Admiral Thomas Cochrane, the man Napoleon dubbed ‘the Sea Wolf’. And who established both the first Chilean Naval Squadron and the forebear of today’s Brazilian Navy. Or Martin Guisse, who founded the Peruvian Navy. I am delighted that warships in Latin American navies bear their names to this day.

I am also proud of the role the United Kingdom played in supporting the struggle for Latin America’s independence, and in laying the foundations for your subsequent success. British engineers and British finance helped build the railways and the ports that connected Latin America to the markets across the world.

Two hundred years on from that revolutionary period, the tectonic plates of world politics are shifting once again. Today I want to talk about values, climate and the shared bonds between our peoples.

We are living through the beginning of a new era of geopolitical competition. Alongside these trends, a battle of ideas is taking place once again. This time, its focus is on the nature and the future of the international order.

Our position is clear. Respect for sovereignty, respect for territorial integrity, respect for self-determination and human rights must prevail. Alongside democracy, the rule of law, liberty and freedom. Free and fair elections are the foundation of any stable, healthy democracy.

I know these values are shared across Latin America, although not yet enjoyed by all. Your support in the UN for Ukraine’s right to defend itself against Russian aggression has made that crystal clear.

Talking of self-determination and democracy, it would be remiss of me not to talk about the Falklands.

The Falkland Islanders, like everybody else, deserve the freedom to decide their own future, in political, cultural, economic and development terms. Their 2013 referendum made clear that they wish to maintain their current relationship with the UK, as is their absolute right. And the UK will continue to support them.

But protecting self-determination and democracy is not the sole challenge.

We live in a world of rapidly increasing transnational threats. Climate change is the most urgent and obvious example. We need strong multilateral institutions, representing the world as it is today, economically, politically and demographically.

This is not currently the case. The UK recognises that. And we want to work with you to change it.

Countries across Latin America have a decisive role to play in reshaping the international order and the multilateral system to fit the world of the 21st century. Just as Canning foresaw.

The population of this corner of our planet and its economy have grown rapidly in recent decades. In the year of my birth, 1969, Latin America was home to 279 million people. Today that figure is more than 664 million people.

Your demographic and economic weight gives you a pivotal role in determining whether the international order will endure.

As I said last December, the shift in world power has been evident for some time. And it is my goal as the UK Foreign Secretary to ensure that our strategic thinking reflects this simple fact. That’s why I’ve come to Latin America this week.

I want to take forward the agenda set out in 2010 by my predecessor William Hague at Canning House in London.

Since then, we’ve opened or reopened embassies and high commissions across the region. The UK has dozens of honorary consuls from Tijuana on the Mexico-US border to Punta Arenas on the southern tip of Chile.

The UK has welcomed thousands more Chevening scholars to our universities. And the number of Latin Americans visiting the UK has nearly doubled. The British Council has extended its reach 5-fold since 2010, reaching more than 100 million people across the Americas last year.

UK trade and investment with Latin America recovered strongly last year from their post-pandemic low. The total value of imports and exports rose by a massive 45% last year to more than £40 billion.

But with Latin America representing only 2% of UK imports and only 2.5% of UK exports worldwide, I recognise that there is much more to do on trade and investment. Our shared strategic focus on critical minerals, green hydrogen and sustainable infrastructure is encouraging.

The UK’s imminent accession to the Trans Pacific Partnership, joining Mexico, Peru and Chile, is a positive step forward. And hopefully soon joined by Costa Rica, Ecuador and Uruguay.

Last week, the UK completed the third round of talks on a UK-Mexico Free Trade Agreement.

Together we have a strong democratic voice in favour of the rules-based international system. Together we must speak out against the systemic threats to these values arising from multiple parts of the globe. And together we must work together on climate, the rights of women and girls, green energy, cyber security, science and technology.

At COP26 in Glasgow, my country pledged £300 million to protect the Amazon. As a result of our Partnerships for Forests programme, which I saw just days ago in Colombia, more than 62,000 hectares of land are now being managed sustainably across Colombia and Peru.

Another joint focus is the globally strategic lithium triangle that lies between Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. Rio Tinto’s billion-dollar investment is forecast to yield 100,000 tonnes of lithium by 2027. This will fuel the green battery revolution.

We’ve supported Chile to sell bonds worth more than £21 billion on London’s Sustainable Bond Market. We’ve leveraged $464 million of green finance for Mexico.

Our green hydrogen technology offers Latin American farmers a cheaper and cleaner alternative to petroleum-based fertilisers, boosting food security everywhere.

As part of our International Women and Girls Strategy, the UK has helped Chevening Alumni establish a gender-focused NGO called Hace la Fuerza.

Bringing together women from Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, we have built a community of future Latin American leaders. Because when women’s rights are advanced, everyone gains.

These examples – and others like them – show how partnership between the UK and the countries of Latin America can make a real difference. Not just to our security and prosperity, but to that of the whole world.

There is so much more that I would like us to do together.

Our bilateral joint roadmaps will set direction in Brazil, Colombia, Peru and elsewhere.

The universal values on which the international order stands are timeless. But our world’s multilateral institutions do need reform, in particular to give more voice and more influence to Latin America. The UK wants Brazil to sit as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

And we must work towards broader reform, in partnership with others. The call for systemic reform of our international financial institutions must be strengthened.

Together we can unlock the critical green investments that this region needs from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.

The UK government supports the momentum behind Prime Minister Mottley’s Bridgetown Initiative. The poorest and most vulnerable must benefit from overdue reform of international financial institutions.

International tax reform, coupled with a crackdown on money laundering and illicit finance will stop the leakage of much-needed funding from national treasuries. Which is why the UK is providing £20 million for rule of law and anti-corruption reforms in Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. And £2.2 million for tax reform in Brazil.

But we should not neglect people-to-people ties.

The UK is home to more than a quarter of a million Latin Americans – amongst them are 71 players in the English Premier League, including 6 players from Argentina’s World Cup winning squad. My team Arsenal, even with 3 fantastic Brazilian players, all called Gabriel, still couldn’t win the league.

Hundreds of thousands of Britons visit this outstandingly beautiful region every year.

Spanish is already the second most popular foreign language in British schools – and is forecast to take the top slot in the coming years.

I want your best and brightest researchers and students to come to the UK’s world-leading universities. And I want more British students to come to Latin America to study as well.

We should be ambitious for our future relationship. Not just because of the historical bonds of friendship that have united us for more than 200 years, but because we all treasure the same fundamental values that inspired the creation of the international order. It will only evolve, survive and ultimately prosper with the support and whole-hearted engagement of this great region.

Two hundred years ago, Simon Bolivar said that “the freedom of the New World is the hope of the universe”. Your love of freedom continues to inspire the world today.

It’s why I’ve come here from London to revive old friendships and build new ones. And to pledge our long-term commitment.

I’m offering the UK’s support on the issues that we together most care about. And I ask for yours in exchange, as a partner. But, even more importantly, as the representative of this continent’s oldest friend.

Thank you.

Welcome, your Royal Highnesses, your excellencies, my lords, ladies and gentlemen.

It is a privilege to meet you all this morning at the start of a historic weekend for our country as well as for observers across the world. Tomorrow marks a new era for the United Kingdom.

This chapter of world history will be defined by our efforts to survive and thrive in spite of the immense and unique threats we currently face.

As such, His Majesty the King has asked that sustainability be a central theme of the Coronation. Concern for the state of our planet characterised his work as Prince of Wales and no doubt will distinguish his reign as King.

His Majesty’s government shares his passionate engagement with this pressing issue and has so far set the international standard for climate action.

We have committed £11.6 billion for climate finance, have pledged to reach net zero by 2050 and are tirelessly working to realise the epic potential of the Glasgow Climate Pact. The time for complacency is long gone. The need for action has never been more urgent.

This is true first and foremost for Small Island Developing States. Our friends and partners in SIDS are on the frontline of climate change, suffering from natural disasters, facing catastrophic sea level rises and daunting adaptation challenges.

This is compounded by extraordinary economic challenges. Island economies experienced some of the harshest economic downturns globally as a result of COVID-19.

These unique structural vulnerabilities mean that you deserve all the support and provisions required to protect your people and safeguard your economies.

I recently saw for myself in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea the challenges governments and communities face when it comes to climate change. It touched me deeply. Exposure to extreme elements is a burden whose brunt should be borne by as many powers as possible.

That is why we’ve proposed the expansion of disaster risk finance. We must ensure that the right resources are readily available so that you can respond rapidly to shocks like hurricanes and the loss of critical infrastructures like water and health when they are needed most.

SIDS leadership is unmatched in calling for ambitious climate action. You also have a special role as large ocean states in protecting rich biodiversity and nature.

We want to support your vital leadership. In that spirit we have set out an ambitious vision for SIDS in our development strategy. It is a vision that focuses on climate and economic resilience.

But the UK cannot do this alone – others in the international system must strive to meet this challenge. Our most revered poet, William Shakespeare, once wrote ‘a touch of nature makes the whole world kin’. The dangers of our rapidly transforming environment ought to do the same; ought to alert us all to the perilous prospect of an inhospitable habitat.

The 2024 SIDS Summit is perhaps our last best chance to agree collectively on how to make this happen.

In my view, an international system that is fit for purpose for SIDS is one that is:

• country-focused – with rules and processes suited to small states and to the unique situation of our SIDS partners
• pragmatic – adapting to realities on the ground, and not stuck in outmoded models; and one which is
• committed – and fully focused on delivering tangible change

We are not there yet. The international community has squandered too much time bickering over the direction our lifeboat should take, rather than attending to its maintenance and plugging potentially lethal leaks.

Reforming international finance is a good starting point for action. Indeed, the international financial system desperately needs reform. The Bridgetown Initiative has been a clarion call for change across the IMF, World Bank and regional development banks.

The UK is prioritising international finance reform to better address developing countries’ needs. And we believe that the 2024 UN SIDS Summit is our opportunity to get priorities right for you.

I will visit Jamaica later this month for the biennial UK-Caribbean Forum and the UK-Jamaica Strategic Dialogue. And beyond the SIDS Summit many of us will gather in Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. I look forward to further discussions at those events including our shared values, our commitment to democracy and our people-to-people links.

We are a proud and vocal partner of SIDS in international forums and will continue to be so. As Prime Minister Mottley said “How many more surges must there be before the world takes action?  None are safe until all are safe.”

We must work together. Not just to survive, but to thrive, and to thrive indefinitely. Thank you and welcome to London.

Even when the emergencies of the day are seemingly all-consuming,

It is vital never to lose sight of the biggest long-term questions.

So tonight I propose to focus on a subject that will define our epoch

and that is China and the UK’s policy towards it.

I’m often asked to express that policy in a single phrase,

or to sum up China itself in one word, whether “threat”, or “partner”, or “adversary”.

And I want to start by explaining why that is impossible, impractical and – most importantly – unwise.

China is one of the few countries which can trace its existence back over two millennia,

to 221BC,

when it was united by the Qin Dynasty.

Time and time again down the centuries, civil war or foreign invasions fractured China into rival kingdoms,

but after every period of turmoil,

China has always re-emerged.

The opening line of the Chinese epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms describes this cycle:

“Empires wax and wane; states cleave asunder and coalesce.”

And long before they coalesced into one polity, the Chinese people created their language and their civilisation.

Their written characters appeared in the Shang Dynasty in the 2nd millennium BC.

Their inventions – paper, printing, gunpowder, the compass – these things transformed the fortunes of the whole of humanity.

These innovations are the key to understanding why China’s economy was among the biggest in the world for 20 of the last 22 centuries,

and why China, in 1820, comprised a third of global GDP – more than America, the UK and Europe combined.

Then calamities struck, one after another;

some caused by foreign aggression;

others coming from within China itself.

The deadliest of which was Mao’s famine, which claimed tens of millions of lives, more than any other famine in human history.

Yet the last 45 years have seen another astonishing reversal.

By releasing the enterprising genius of its people, China has achieved the biggest and fastest economic expansion the world has ever known.

No less than 800 million people have lifted themselves out of poverty,

in a nation that encompasses a fifth of all humanity

and a vast area almost as large as continental Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals.

So forgive me when I say that no punchy catchphrase or plausible adjective can do justice to such a country or to any sensible approach towards it.

If you are looking for British foreign policy by soundbite, I’m afraid you will be disappointed.

My starting point is a recognition of the depth and complexity of Chinese history and civilisation,

and therefore, by extension, of our own policy.

And I rest that policy on a series of premises,

the first of which is

that whatever our differences with China’s leaders,

I rejoice in the fact that so many Chinese people have escaped poverty.

We do not live in a miserable zero-sum world: their gain is our gain.

A stable, prosperous and peaceful China is good for Britain and good for the world.

Looking ahead, I reject any notion of inevitability.

No-one predicted China’s rapid rise from mass starvation to relative prosperity

and today no-one can be sure that China’s economic juggernaut will roll on indefinitely.

Last year, for the first time since Mao’s death in 1976, China’s economy grew no faster than the world economy,

meaning that China’s share of global GDP stayed constant in 2022.

And even if China does become the world’s largest economy in the coming decade,

it may not hold that place for long,

as a declining and ageing population weighs ever more heavily on future growth.

Nor do I see anything inevitable about conflict between China and the United States and the wider West.

We are not compelled to be prisoners of what Graham Allison called the “Thucydides trap”,

whereby a rising power follows the trajectory of ancient Athens,

and collides head-on with an established superpower.

We have agency;

we have choices;

and so do our Chinese counterparts.

Our task is to shape the course of future events, not succumb to fatalism.

And we must face the inescapable reality that no significant global problem

– from climate change to pandemic prevention,

from economic instability to nuclear proliferation –

can be solved without China.

To give up on dialogue with China would be to give up on addressing humanity’s greatest problems.

Even worse, we would be ignoring salient facts, vital to our safety and our prosperity.

As I speak, the biggest repository of health data in the world is in China.

The biggest source of active ingredients for the world’s pharmaceuticals is in China.

And the biggest source of carbon emissions is also in China.

Indeed, China has pumped more carbon into the atmosphere in the last 10 years than this country has since the dawn of the industrial revolution in the 18th century.

How China regulates its data,

how China develops its pharmaceuticals,

how China conducts medical research,

will be of seminal importance to the whole of humanity.

And whether or not China cuts its carbon emissions will probably make the difference between our planet avoiding the worst ravages of climate change, or suffering catastrophe.

We have already learned to our cost how China’s handling of a pandemic can affect the entire world.

So have no doubt: decisions taken in Beijing are going to affect our lives.

Do we not owe it to ourselves to strive to influence those decisions in our own interests?

It would be clear and easy – and perhaps even satisfying –

for me to declare some kind of new Cold War and say that our goal is to isolate China.

It would be clear, it would be easy, it would be satisfying – and it would be wrong,

because it would be a betrayal of our national interest and a willful misunderstanding of the modern world.

Indeed, this Government will advance British interests directly with China, alongside our allies, while steadfastly defending our national security and our values.

And we can expect profound disagreements;

dealing with China I can assure you, is not for the fainthearted;

they represent a ruthless authoritarian tradition utterly at odds with our own.

But we have an obligation to future generations to engage because otherwise we would be failing in our duty to sustain – and shape – the international order.

Shirking that challenge would be a sign

not of strength but of weakness.

Vladimir Putin never intended to demonstrate the power of a united West when he launched his onslaught against Ukraine.

But our response shows that when Britain and America and Europe and our other partners across the world stand united, we are a match for anything.

We should have every confidence in our collective ability to engage robustly and also constructively with China,

not as an end in itself, but to manage risks and produce results.

And we have achieved results.

Let me give you some examples. In 2017 research, British research, convinced the Chinese agriculture ministry to act against the danger of antibiotic resistance by restricting colistin, an antibiotic used in animal feed.

Sales fell by 90 percent, making everyone in the world safer.

Last year, our diplomats in China helped to persuade the authorities to amend a draft procurement law,

improving the chances of UK companies bidding for contracts from state-owned enterprises.

This year, they secured licences worth £600 million for UK institutions to launch fund management companies in China.

Britain’s position as a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has also allowed us to influence China’s approach towards this new institution,

preventing it from becoming a politicised extension of the Belt and Road Initiative.

China is the biggest shareholder of this Bank, the Bank is headquartered in Beijing,

and yet within a week of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine,

it froze every single project in Russia.

But even though engagement can succeed,

the truth is that a country like ours,

devoted to liberty and democracy,

will always be torn between our national interest in dealing with China

and our abhorrence of Beijing’s abuses.

When we see how authoritarian states treat their own people, we wonder what they would do to us if they had the chance.

And history teaches us that repression at home often translates into aggression abroad.

So our policy has to combine two currents:

we must engage with China where necessary and be unflinchingly realistic about its authoritarianism.

And that means never wavering from one clear principle.

We do not expect our disagreements with China to be swiftly overcome,

but we do expect China to observe the laws and obligations that it has freely entered in to.

So, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council,

China has shouldered a special responsibility to uphold the UN Charter.

As a party to the Joint Declaration,

China has agreed to preserve Hong Kong’s freedom.

As a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to the Convention Against Torture and many other instruments of international law,

China has accepted an array of obligations.

And if China breaks them, we are entitled to say so

and we are entitled to act – and we will –

as we did when China dismantled the freedoms of Hong Kong, violating its own pledge,

which is why we gave nearly 3 million of Hong Kong’s people a path to British citizenship.

Peaceful co-existence has to begin with respecting fundamental laws and institutions,

including the UN Charter,

which protects every country against invasion.

And that means every country: a Chinese diplomat in Paris cannot, and must not, and will not, decide the legal status of sovereign countries.

By attacking Ukraine, Russia has provided an object lesson in how a UN member state should not behave.

And Putin has also trampled upon China’s own stated principles of non-interference and respect for sovereignty.

A powerful and responsible nation cannot simply abstain when this happens,

or draw closer to the aggressor,

or aid and abet that aggression.

A country that wants a respected place at the apex of the world order should stand up for its own principles,

and keep its solemn obligations

Obligations to defend the laws at the very foundation of that order.

This responsibility goes hand-in-hand with China’s right to play a global role commensurate with its size and its history.

And the rights of a sovereign nation like Ukraine cannot be eradicated just because the eradicator enjoys a “strategic partnership” with China.

So, British policy towards China has three pillars.

First, we will strengthen our national security protections wherever Beijing’s actions pose a threat to our people or our prosperity.

We are not going to be silent about interference in our political system, or technology theft, or industrial sabotage.

We will do more to safeguard academic freedom and research.

And when there are tensions with other objectives, we will always put our national security first.

Hence we are building our 5G network in the most secure way, not the fastest or the cheapest way.

China’s leaders define their core interests – and it’s natural that they do.

But we have core interests too,

and one of them is to promote the kind of world that we want to live in,

where people everywhere have a universal human right to be treated with dignity,

free from torture, free from slavery, free from arbitrary detention.

And there is nothing uniquely “Western” about these values:

torture hurts just as much whoever it is inflicted upon.

So when Britain condemns the mass incarceration of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, I hope our Chinese counterparts do not believe their own rhetoric

that we are merely seeking to interfere in their domestic affairs.

Just as we should try harder to understand China, I hope that Chinese officials will understand

that when their government builds a 21st century version of the gulag archipelago,

locking up over a million people at the height of this campaign,

often for doing nothing more than observing their religion,

this stirs something deep within us.

When the United Nations finds that China’s repression in Xinjiang may – and I quote – “constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity”,

our revulsion is heartfelt and shared unanimously across our country and beyond.

We are not going to let what is happened in Xinjiang drop or be brushed aside.

We cannot ignore this simply because this is happening on the other side of a frontier,

or that to raise it might be considered unharmonious or impolite.

Second, the UK will deepen our cooperation and strengthen our alignment with our friends and partners in the Indo-Pacific and across the world.

Our aim will be to bolster collective security, deepen commercial links, uphold international law, and balance and compete where necessary.

So I’m delighted that Britain will soon be the 12th member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, reinforcing our trading ties with rapidly growing economies.

Already we are the only European country to be a Dialogue Partner of the Association of South-East Asian Nations.

We are deepening our long term partnership with India.

And we are developing the next generation of our aircraft alongside Japan.

And we’ve joined the United States to help Australia to build nuclear-powered conventionally-armed submarines under the AUKUS partnership.

Together with our friends, the UK will strive for openness and transparency in the Indo-Pacific.

At this moment, China is carrying out the biggest military build-up in peacetime history.

In a period of just four years – between 2014 and 2018 – China launched new warships exceeding the combined tonnage of the Royal Navy’s entire active fleet.

And a we see this happening;

as we watch new bases appearing in the South China Sea and beyond,

we are bound to ask ourselves: what is it all for?

Why is China making this colossal military investment?

And if we are left to draw our own conclusions, prudence dictates that we must assume the worst.

And yet of course we could be wrong: it is possible that we will be too cautious and too pessimistic.

The UK and our allies are prepared to be open about our presence in the Indo-Pacific.

And I urge China to be equally open about the doctrine and intent behind its military expansion,

because transparency is surely in everyone’s interests

and secrecy can only increase the risk of tragic miscalculation.

Which brings me to Taiwan.

Britain’s longstanding position is that we want to see a peaceful settlement of the differences across the Strait.

Because about half of the world’s container ships pass through these vital waters every year,

laden with goods bound for Europe and the far corners of the world.

Taiwan is a thriving democracy and a crucial link in global supply chains, particularly for advanced semi-conductors.

A war across the Strait would not only be a human tragedy,

it would destroy world trade worth $2.6 Trillion, according to Nikkei Asia.

No country could shield itself from the repercussions.

Distance would offer no protection from this catastrophic blow to the global economy – and least China’s most of all.

I shudder to contemplate the human and financial ruin that would follow.

So it’s essential that no party takes unilateral action to change the status quo.

And the third pillar of our policy is to engage directly with China, bilaterally and multilaterally, to preserve and create open, constructive and stable relations,

reflecting China’s global importance.

We believe in a positive trade and investment relationship, whilst avoiding dependencies in critical supply chains.

We want British companies to do business with China – just as American, ASEAN, Australian and EU companies currently do –

and we will support their efforts to make the terms work for both sides,

pushing for a level playing field and fairer competition.

We have an interest in continuing to benefit from Chinese investment,

but we don’t want the long arm of the Chinese Communist Party reaching towards the central nervous system of our country.

And in the past, we haven’t always struck the perfect balance between openness and security.

Now we are gaining the right legal powers to safeguard what we must and be open where we can.

Above all, we need to be properly skilled for the challenge,

so we are doubling our funding for China capabilities across Government;

we’ve allocated the resources to build a new British Embassy in Beijing,

I’m determined to reach agreement with China’s government so this can proceed.

So our approach to China must combine all of these currents,

protecting our national security,

aligning with our friends,

engaging and trading with China where our interests converge,

avoiding policy by soundbite,

and always standing up for the universal values which Britain holds dear.

I fervently believe there are no inevitabilities:

the future is ours to shape,

in the humble knowledge

that how we respond to this challenge now will help define the modern world.

Thank you.