British Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered his first clear foreign policy speech since Britain’s departure from the European Union on Feb. 19 on the occasion of the Munich Security Conference. He gave the event’s grand finale speech and said, “Our American friends must know that their allies on this side of the Atlantic are willing and able to share the risks and burdens of solving the world’s toughest problems.” Johnson said that is why the U.K.’s “Global Britain” strategy exists, and that is what the British side is working toward.
Johnson said, “People are accustomed to appearing on such occasions and precursorily declaring that the West is in desperate straits, that the Atlantic Alliance is falling apart, that NATO is in jeopardy, that everything we hold dear is in danger of being forgotten. And this industry of pessimism has flourished recently, perhaps even in Munich.” He said, “I therefore do not mean to downplay the challenges and dangers we face in the global pandemic, but let me respectfully point out that the gloom has passed, we are turning the corner, and the nations we call ‘the West’ are coming together to once again combine their formidable strength and expertise together, and that is of great benefit to everyone.”
Johnson said, “As you saw and heard earlier, it is a remarkable thing that America is unreservedly reasserting itself as the leader of the free world. Our American friends must know that their allies on this side of the Atlantic are willing and able to share the risks and burdens of solving the world’s toughest problems. That’s why the ‘Global Britain’ strategy exists and that’s what it is working to achieve.” He said, “I am pleased to report that I found exactly that willingness among my fellow G7 leaders when I chaired a virtual meeting earlier today. The shared goal of the British G7 presidency is to help the world rebuild better and rebuild greener after a pandemic, and to minimize the risk of a similar disaster happening again. We can all learn from this experience, and none of us want to repeat it.”
Establishing a next pathogen early warning system enabled by a global network of pandemic surveillance centers
According to Johnson, “At the last United Nations General Assembly, I presented a five-point plan to protect the world from future pandemics, and today the G7 agreed to explore through WHO a pandemic preparedness treaty that would enshrine the actions countries need to take to protect all people from another new coronavirus infection. I intend to bring together my leaders, scientists and colleagues from international organizations to defend against the next pathogen, just as we have united against military threats.” He said, “The heroic efforts of the world’s scientists have developed a safe and effective vaccine against the new coronavirus in less than 300 days. Going forward, our goal should be to shorten that Time even more: by pooling our resources, we should aim to develop a vaccine against emerging diseases within 100 days.”
Johnson said, “Even in the first few weeks of the outbreak, I hope we in the U.K. will resist the temptation to ‘go it alone’ and work to keep the flame of global collaboration alive. We helped establish the New Coronavirus Vaccine Implementation (COVAX) program, a global consortium to deliver the New Coronavirus vaccine to developing countries, and today the UK is one of the largest donors to COVAX, with a goal of delivering one billion doses of vaccine to 92 countries, and we will also share much of the remainder of our domestic vaccination program. When Oxford and AstraZeneca embarked on their major effort against the New crown outbreak, their clear goal was to design an inexpensive, easy-to-stock vaccine so that every country could be vaccinated quickly.”
Johnson said, “Protecting ourselves also means tracking mutations in the virus, and nearly half of the world’s genome sequencing of all possible new coronavirus variants has been done in the UK. Now we need to mobilize our shared expertise to build the next pathogen early warning system enabled by a global network of pandemic surveillance centers, and the UK intends to work with WHO and our friends to make this happen.” If anything good can come out of this tragedy, he said, “it is that we at least have the opportunity for a global recovery based on a new green foundation that will enable humanity to prosper without endangering the planet.”
Johnson said, “To that end, as you have just heard from John Kerry, the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Issues, the United Kingdom will host the twenty-sixth United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-26) in Glasgow in November, and I am pleased that the United States under President Biden has rejoined the Paris Agreement. The UK’s goal will be to help as many countries as possible to support the goal of zero emissions by 2050. We were the first industrialized country to adopt this goal, and we have made it legally binding and published our Green Industrial Revolution plan on how we will achieve it, so I hope other countries will follow the UK’s example.”
Ensuring the UK maintains its position as Europe’s largest defense budget and NATO’s second largest defense budget
Johnson said, “But we can only solve global problems with our friends and extend Britain’s influence around the world if Britain itself and our own citizens are safe, including when we all face the threat of terrorism. Our comprehensive foreign, defence and development policy review will be published next month. Its starting point is that the success of the ‘Global Britain’ strategy depends on the security of our homeland and the stability of the Euro-Atlantic region.” He noted, “If climate change and pandemics are silent and insidious threats, hostile nations may, as the Russian regime did three years ago in Salisbury, recklessly harm our people only to collide with the immovable rock of transatlantic solidarity, sanctions and coordinated diplomatic expulsion, an act of collective security par excellence for which I thank our friends once again. “
If we are to ensure our security, our democracies need to strengthen their capacity to meet the rigors of an increasingly competitive world,” Johnson said. It is for this reason, and to enable us to keep our people safe by meeting our obligations to NATO and strengthening Britain’s global influence, that I have decided to strengthen our armed forces with the biggest increase in the defense budget since the Cold War.” He described how “over the next four years, UK defence spending will increase by £24 billion, comfortably exceeding our commitment to invest 2% of GDP in NATO and ensuring we maintain the largest defence budget in Europe and the second largest in NATO, behind only the US. We will focus our investments on new technologies that will revolutionize warfare – artificial intelligence, Drones, directed energy weapons and many others – so that we can fight alongside our allies, deter any adversary and preserve the peace.”
Johnson said, “This year, the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier, ‘HMS Queen Elizabeth,’ will begin her first overseas deployment, sailing 20,000 nautical miles to the Indo-Pacific and back. On her flight deck will be a squadron of U.S. Marine Corps F35 fighters; in her escort fleet will be a U.S. destroyer, showing how the British and U.S. armed forces can operate hand in hand, or rather aircraft on the flight deck, anywhere in the world. But investing in new capabilities is not an end in itself. The purpose of military tools is to enhance diplomacy and thus maximize the chances of success.” He said, “We don’t want to live in a world of unfettered competition or decoupling or impediments to reasonable cooperation and global economic growth. Nor do we care only about trade: I hope that Britain shows by our actions that we will defend our values and interests.”
I hope Britain shows by our actions that we will defend our values and interests
Johnson noted, “In leaving the European Union, we have restored sovereign control over an important lever of foreign policy. For the first time in nearly 50 years, we now have the power to impose independent national sanctions, enabling Britain to act quickly and forcefully. Our first decision was to establish a Magnitsky system designed to punish human rights abusers. Subsequently, the UK became the first European country to sanction senior Belarusian officials after the stolen elections. We have now imposed sanctions on more than 50 human rights abusers, including those from Russia, Burma and Zimbabwe.”
Johnson said, “We have consistently and publicly opposed China’s repression of the Uighur people in Xinjiang province, and we will continue to do so. We have introduced new measures to ensure that British companies’ supply chains are not tainted by abuses in Xinjiang. After China violated treaties and imposed repressive national security laws on Hong Kong, the UK provided a pathway to British citizenship for nearly three million people there. We moved quickly and willingly to get cross-party support at Home to keep faith with the people of Hong Kong. Now that we have left the EU, the British Parliament has a greater say in foreign policy, which only strengthens our country’s resolve to be a force for good in the world.”
Johnson spoke of how “Britain is working with France, Germany and the United States in a transatlantic group of four nations to address the most pressing security issues, including Iran. I sense a new determination among our European friends and allies to stand together and act again with determination, a spirit we saw when Alexei Navalny recovered from his hospital bed in Berlin after his attempted murder. While NATO is being written off in some places, the European defense spending supermajor is quietly beginning to turn, and while this subtle high seas maneuver is far from complete and the ship still needs to change course, the fact remains that NATO defense spending, excluding the United States, has increased by $190 billion since the 2014 Wales summit.”
Johnson said, “When our allies to the east sought security assurances, NATO responded by deploying a multinational force in Poland and the Baltic states, and the UK proudly made the largest single contribution by leading the Estonian battle group, demonstrating that we mean it when we say our commitment to European security is unconditional and unshakeable. I believe that Europe increasingly recognizes the need to rediscover, along with our American friends, the kind of visionary leadership and the spirit of adventure and transatlantic solidarity that made our two continents great in the first place.”
Liberal democracy, rule of law and free market beliefs form the great trinity of human progress
Johnson said, “A new world is rising up around us, trade and business models are changing, the global center of gravity is shifting eastward, and the technological revolution is proceeding at an astonishing pace. But none of us should fear or resent these changes. Free societies are united by their belief in liberal democracy, the rule of law and free markets, which surely constitute the great trinity of human progress.” He continued, “Free nations, many of which, by the way, are geographically located far beyond the geographic ‘West,’ have an unlimited and inherent capacity to unleash the talents and enterprise of their people to master and adapt to change. It is no coincidence that all but one of the 10 most innovative countries in the world, according to the 2020 Global Innovation Index rankings, are liberal democracies.”
Johnson said, “As long as we share the burden, compete successfully, and find friends and partners wherever we can, there is no reason why our countries should not be stronger and more secure in 2030, and into 2050, than they are today. I have invited South Korea, Australia and India to attend the next G-7 Summit as guests, along with major international organizations. So let’s resist any temptation to bemoan the changes around us.” He called, “Let us build an open and innovative alliance, transcending established alliances and geography, proud of our history, but free from any temptation to backslide, and harnessing the genius of an open society to flourish in an era of renewed competition. Let us respectfully dispel the pessimism that sometimes attends our meetings. Side by side, the United States and Europe have the ability to prove once again the inherent strengths of free nations and to successfully shape our own Destiny.”
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