UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Britain’s new UN ambassador says the government feels “gung ho” about continuing its role as a major player on the world stage, despite its departure from the European Union.
Barbara Woodward pointed to the UK’s permanent seat on the powerful UN Security Council, this year’s chairmanship of the Group of Seven Major Industrialized Countries, membership of the Group of 20 Leading Economic Powers and NATO, and the host nation of the next United Nations. global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.
“Don’t underestimate the strength of the relationship with the EU,” she stressed in an interview with The Associated Press last week. “There are many values and principles that we share with European partners that I think will serve us well.”
Britain’s long and sometimes contentious separation from the EU became final on December 31, a split that left the 27-member bloc without any of its major economic powers and the UK freer to chart its future but facing a world trying to cope with a deadly pandemic and rising unemployment, growing divisions between haves and have-nots and a climate crisis.
An article in the US-based World Politics Review in October identified three visions for Britain’s future: “Catastrophists claiming that the UK has become completely irrelevant on the international stage as a result of Brexit; the nostalgic, who see a mighty Britain through the lens of a great colonial power; and the deniers, who refuse to accept that Britain must adapt to a changing global context. “
Authors Ben Judah, a British-French journalist and author, and Georgina Wright, a Brexit researcher at the Institute for Government, a British think tank, said that since Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016 “ it is undeniable that British leadership as well as influence on global affairs has taken a hit. “
“In international circles it has become fashionable to overly reject Britain’s weight in world affairs,” they said. “Still, the country continues to weigh.”
Woodward, who came to the UN as ambassador to China after more than five years and previously served in Russia, agrees.
“We’ve had a pretty introspective three years with Brexit negotiations and managing COVID,” she said, but with the forthcoming climate summit and UK G-7 presidency as the group grapples with an economic recovery from the pandemic, “think I think we’ve got a pretty big part to play. “
She said Prime Minister Boris Johnson “is very fond of multilateralism.” On December 31, when Britain left the EU, he said the UK is now “free to negotiate trade deals around the world and free to boost our ambition to become a scientific superpower”.
At the beginning of this month, Economist magazine said the UK has the opportunity “to take a lead on the world stage,” with its G-7 presidency – including possible invitations to Australia, India and South Korea to join the sessions of the group – and host the Glasgow Climate Summit, “the most important diplomatic event of the year”.
Johnson is expected to visit India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guest of honor on Republic Day on January 26, “part of an acclaimed” tilt to the Indo-Pacific, “said the Economist, adding that Britain also has its doors. open discussions to join the 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership and calls to become a “dialogue partner” of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Woodward said the UK’s departure from the EU makes the seat of the United Nations and Britain’s permanent Security Council “more important because the UN has always been the largest multilateral forum”.
She pointed to Sunday’s hybrid commemoration of the first United Nations General Assembly meeting in London 75 years ago that Britain is hosting, saying that the world is very different today, “but so much of the division may be now. even deeper. “
Over the next year, Woodward said, there are three major issues to address:
– Vaccinate rich and poor people everywhere against the coronavirus and take action to revive pandemic-devastated economies.
– Make climate change a top priority, aiming to prevent temperature rises and raise the billions needed to make progress;
– Dealing with a range of global security vulnerabilities.
Woodward said Iran will be a pivotal security issue regardless of whether US President-elect Joseph Biden continues his tendency to get back into the 2015 nuclear deal that President Donald Trump withdrew from. She mentioned the Iranian role in other conflicts, including in Yemen and Syria.
There are also security concerns elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa, where terrorist attacks in the Sahel are of particular concern, as well as security issues surrounding the protection of digital data.
“I think the relationships that the new (US) administration decides to have with all of its allies – European partners, NATO allies, how it builds a relationship with China, will be critical, as well as how we work together in the UN. Security Council, ”Woodward said.