Diplomatic focus on emerging powers

• China and India embassies boosted and Europe posts cut • Foreign Office ‘must match realities of 21st century’ William Hague is due to unveil changes to the way Britain deploys diplomats around the world, with fewer to be stationed in Europe and more to go to emerging powers, such as China and India, in what he claims is the biggest strategic shift in the service for decades. The changes, which the foreign secretary will present to the Commons, are a response to the 10% cut in the Foreign Office’s resources imposed in last year’s comprehensive spending review, and to changes in the global power structure. Hague will say that redeployments of diplomats over the next four years will reflect Britain’s long-term interests rather than be in response to short-term crises. “By 2015 we must aim to be a Foreign Office that is lean and efficient but configured to match the realities of the 21st century,” Hague told civil servants on Tuesday. “Taken together, this represents the biggest strategic diplomatic advance by Britain in decades.” The most tangible change will be a boost to the number of diplomats despatched to the world’s emerging powers. There will be 50 more envoys in China and 30 more in India, roughly a 7% increase in the size of both embassies. More “frontline staff” will be sent to Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and Indonesia. Hague will maintain the existing 140 or so embassies and high commissions, but add more – in El Salvador, Kyrgyzstan, South Sudan (due to become independent in July) and, when local circumstances permit, in Somalia and Madagascar. To pay for this expansion and meet the Foreign Office’s budgetary target of a 10% real cut by 2014-15, savings are to be made in Europe, the most expensive region. Representation in European cities outside capitals is to be scaled down; consulates will close or be replaced with smaller trade missions. Some consular staff will move according to peaks in demand, following the flow of tourists, for example. It is hoped the missions in Afghanistan and Iraq can be scaled back as conditions allow in the coming years. “When I am asked if the intensive pace of events in the Middle East means that we care less about commercial diplomacy and relations with the emerging powers, the answer is a resounding no. We have to do both the short- and long-term work. So by 2015 we must aim to be a Foreign Office that is lean and efficient but configured to match the realities of the 21st century,” Hague told Foreign Office staff on Tuesday, in a preview of the Commons statement. “Taken together, this represents the biggest strategic diplomatic advance by Britain in decades.” Some of the European savings would be additional to the target of £100m reductions in departmental running costs, and up to £40m cuts in the costs of programmes, such as special joint projects with other governments. Robin Niblett, director of the foreign policy thinktank Chatham House, said: “This is putting meat on the bones of the announced strategy of shifting from a Euro-Atlantic focus towards a more G20, multipolar world.” In 2008 Hague’s predecessor, David Miliband, also called for a shift of resources away from Europe to China and India, and for “laptop diplomats” who could be sent to remote areas and troublespots where they could function independently without the need for embassies or consulates. Foreign Office sources said that Miliband’s ambitions were overshadowed by the urgent need to build up the UK embassy in Kabul, and by the department’s temporary loss of budgetary protection against fluctuations in global exchange rates. Foreign policy William Hague Julian Borger guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 11, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.