UN envoy: Britain is ‘gung ho’ about world role after Brexit

Britain’s new ambassador to the United Nations has said the Government is feeling “gung ho” about continuing its role as an important player on the world stage despite its exit from the European Union.

Dame Barbara Woodward pointed to the UK’s permanent seat on the powerful UN Security Council, its presidency this year of the Group of Seven major industrialised nations, its membership in the Group of 20 leading economic powers and Nato, and its hosting of the next United Nations global climate summit in Glasgow in November.

“Don’t under-estimate the power of the relationship with the EU,” she stressed in an interview with the Associated Press this week. “There’s a lot of values and principles which we share with European partners which, I think, will stand us in good stead.”

Britain’s long and sometimes contentious divorce from the EU became final on December 31, a split that left the 27-member bloc without one of its major economic powers and the UK freer to chart its future but facing a world trying to confront a deadly pandemic and cope with 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 who argue that the UK has become completely irrelevant on the international stage as a result of Brexit; the nostalgics, who see a powerful Britain through the lens of a great colonial power; and the denialists, 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 UK think tank the Institute for Government, said that since Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016 “it is undeniable that both British leadership and influence over global affairs have taken a hit”.

“In international circles, it has become fashionable to be overly dismissive of Britain’s weight in world affairs,” they said. “Yet the country continues to carry weight.”

Dame Barbara, whose UN appointment followed more than five years as ambassador to China and who 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 Britain’s presidency of the G7 as the group grapples with economic recovery from the pandemic, “I think we’ve got quite a big role to play.”

She said Prime Minister Boris Johnson is “very keen on multilateralism”.

On December 31, as Britain was leaving the EU, he said the UK is now “free to do trade deals around the world, and free to turbocharge our ambition to be a science superpower”.

Early this month, the Economist magazine said the UK has the opportunity “to cut a dash on the world stage” with its G7 presidency – including possible invitations to Australia, India and South Korea to attend the group’s sessions – and hosting the climate summit in Glasgow, “the most important diplomatic event of the year”.

Mr Johnson is expected to visit India and be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guest of honour on Republic Day on January 26, “part of a much-touted ’tilt to the Indo-Pacific'”, the Economist said, adding that Britain has also opened discussions to join the 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership and is pushing to become a “dialogue partner” of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Dame Barbara said the UK’s exit from the EU makes the United Nations and Britain’s permanent Security Council seat “more important because the UN has always been the biggest multilateral forum”.

She pointed to Sunday’s hybrid commemoration of the first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in London 75 years ago which Britain is hosting, saying the world is very different today “but so many of the divisions are perhaps even deeper now”.

In the coming year, she said, there are three major issues that need to be tackled:

– Vaccinating rich and poor people everywhere against coronavirus and taking action to revive economies devastated by the pandemic;

– Making climate change a top priority, focusing on preventing temperature rises, and raising the billions needed to make progress;

– Dealing with a range of global security problems.

Dame Barbara said Iran will be a central security issue whether or not US President-elect Joe Biden goes through with his inclination to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal that Donald Trump pulled out of. She cited the Iranian role in other conflicts including in Yemen and Syria.

There are also security problems elsewhere in the Middle East and in Africa, where terrorist attacks in the Sahel are especially worrying, as well as security questions around protecting digital data.

“I think the relations 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,” she said.