Post-Brexit Britain deepens ties with Southeast Asia

Britain must reach out beyond its old “baseline alliances” in the West, Dominic Raab has declared, as the UK becomes the first new partner of the Southeast Asian bloc in 25 years.

On Thursday morning, the Foreign Secretary will attend a virtual signing ceremony with the 10 nations that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), as Britain joins its “dialogue partner” club.

The move forms the diplomatic pillar of a three-pronged foreign policy strategy in the region, which also involves bolstering security and trade ties. It is part of the UK’s wider tilt towards the Indo-Pacific, as the Government pursues a post-Brexit vision of “Global Britain”.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Raab explained that membership of the club would offer Britain opportunities, as well as mitigate threats as the global “matrix of risk” evolves in the coming decades.

He said it was important to seek ways to “positively influence China” in the region, but added: “It's not all about China, it's about positive opportunities. The Indo-Pacific is the growth market of the future, if you take a 10-year period.”

Stronger ties to the Asean nations – which are Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Brunei, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam – include underscoring new British jobs and providing “scaling-up opportunities for startups”, he said.

The bloc has a combined GDP of $3.2 trillion (£2.3 trillion). By formalising relations, the UK will be invited to attend annual meetings of foreign and economic ministers, cooperating at greater depth on trade, investment, climate change, the environment, science and technology, and education.

Other formal partners of the bloc include the US, EU, China, India, Japan and Russia. Washington views Asean as central to its efforts to stand up to Beijing’s growing clout in the region.

Warning that the “tectonic geopolitical plates have shifted” in the 21st century, Mr Raab stressed that Britain’s prosperity and security relied on deepening relationships with regions beyond the West.

“We need to not just rely on the old important baseline alliances, whether it’s Five Eyes [intelligence-sharing partnership], Nato, the US or European friends,” he said. “They matter. It's not about diluting our focus on that, but we need to build on it. And so a region like Southeast Asia is particularly important.”

He cited the ability to cooperate with Indonesia on counter-terrorism and with Vietnam on anti-trafficking, as well as working with the wider group on global issues such as climate change and Covid.

Alongside becoming a partner of Asean, Britain is building security ties in the region by dispatching the Carrier Strike Group, and trade links by entering negotiations to join the major Trans-Pacific trading bloc.

Responding to the suggestion by Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, that while Washington focused more on Asia, Britain could be “more helpful in other parts of the world”, Mr Raab insisted his American counterpart’s remarks had been “over interpreted”.

The Foreign Secretary made clear Britain had a claim to being more active in the Far East too.

“There is no doubt that the tectonic plates geopolitically, the economic ties have shifted to the Indo Pacific… He [Mr Austin] recognised that we need a collaborative, team-effort approach.”

Mr Raab described joining Asean’s club of allies as an “important” move in the “strategic jigsaw”, which he has negotiated after visiting the region six times since he took the helm of the Foreign Office two years ago.

Critics of Asean, including some of the region’s politicians and campaigners, have cast doubt over whether the bloc’s forums for discussion lead to concrete action.

Veerle Nouwens, a senior research fellow on the Indo-Pacific Programme at the Royal United Services Institute, said it was “very significant” that the UK had become a dialogue partner of the bloc following its multi-decade moratorium on new members.

She said: “It means the UK can now sit at the table at high-level meetings at Asean with countries whose economic projections are incredibly promising.”