UK Foreign Secretary – New future partnerships policy for the next twenty years and beyond

Ashraf AboArafe

12 December 2022 – British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly set out a fresh vision for UK foreign policy, focused on building long term meaningful partnerships with countries that have not been traditional partners of the UK.

In his first major speech as Foreign Secretary, Cleverly set out plans that include moving away from more short-term transactional relationships, towards creating tailored UK offers to a range of countries that will be increasingly important on the world stage.  

At a time of international instability caused by Russia’s unprovoked assault on Ukraine, these will be mutually beneficial partnerships based on the needs and strengths of these partner countries – spanning trade, development, defence, technology, cyber security, climate change adaption and environmental protection. These will be backed-up by investment through British International Investment and the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure. They will include aid, trade, an exchange of expertise and closer cultural ties.

In his address, which took place at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office in London, Cleverly set out plans to work alongside countries and regions at the forefront of future growth and development, including across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The Foreign Secretary highlighted the benefits of maintaining existing solid relationships and at the same time building future partnerships that will reinforce the principles, rules and global institutions that have fostered an unprecedented period of relative peace and prosperity for more people than at any time in history. Through this, he made clear the need to create a credible and reliable alternative to countries like Russia, who not only test those principles and rules but actively and aggressively flout them, resulting in a huge loss of life, as we have seen in Ukraine.

The vision included a willingness to commit for the long term with a foreign policy aim designed for decades and that embeds the idea of thinking in such timescales.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said:

“In the coming decades, an ever greater share of the world economy – and therefore of world power – will be in the hands of nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

“The UK offer will be tailored to their needs and UK strengths, spanning trade, investment, development, defence, technology and climate change.  This will be backed-up with a reliable source of infrastructure investment.  So I’m determined that we will make investments of faith in the countries that will shape the world’s future. We will show strategic endurance, willing to commit for the long term.  I want our foreign policy to be constantly planning for tomorrow, scanning the horizon, looking 10, 15 and 20 years ahead.”