UNITED NATIONS (PA) – Britain’s new UN ambassador says the government feels “gung ho” about continuing its role as a major player on the world stage, despite leaving the European Union.
Barbara Woodward indicated the UK’s permanent seat on the strong UN Security Council, its presidency this year of the Group of Seven Great Industrialized Nations, membership of the Group of 20 Economic Powers and NATO and hosting the next United Nations Global Summit on weather in Glasgow, Scotland in november.
“Do not underestimate the power of the relationship with the EU,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press last week. “There are a lot of values and principles that we share with European partners, who I believe will support us in our place.”
Britain’s long and sometimes controversial 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 Britain freer to plan for its future, but in the face of a worlds trying to face a deadly pandemic and cope with rising unemployment, rising divisions between those who don’t have and those who don’t, and a climate crisis.
An article in the US World Politics Review in October identified three visions for the future of Britain: “Catastrophists who claim that Britain has become completely irrelevant on the international stage as a result of Brexit; the nostalgic ones, who see a strong Britain through the prism of a great colonial power; and the deniers, who refuse to accept that the UK 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 Governance, a UK think tank, said that since Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, “it is undeniable that both the British leadership and the influence on global affairs took a hit. ”
“In international circles, it has become fashionable to place too much weight on Britain in world affairs,” they said. “However, the country continues to weigh.”
Woodward, who came to the UN after more than five years as ambassador to China and previously served in Russia, agrees.
“We have had three quite introspective years with the Brexit negotiations and the administration of COVID,” she said, but with the upcoming climate meeting and the British presidency of the G-7, as the group faces economic recovery from the pandemic. “I think I have a pretty big role to play. “
She said Prime Minister Boris Johnson was “very keen on multilateralism”. On 31 December, as Britain left the EU, he said Britain was now “free to trade around the world and free to fuel our ambition to be a scientific superpower”.
Earlier this month, Economist magazine said the UK had a chance to “cut a bit on the world stage” with its G-7 presidency – including possible invitations to Australia, India and South Korea to attend the group’s sessions – and hosting the climate meeting in Glasgow, “the most important diplomatic event of the year”.
Johnson is expected to visit India and be the guest of honor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Republic Day on January 26, “part of a much-encouraged” Indo-Pacific inclination, “the economist said. The UK has opened talks to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership with 11 nations and is pushing for it to become a “dialogue partner” of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Woodward said Britain’s exit from the EU makes the permanent seat of the United Nations and the United Nations Security Council “more important because the UN has always been the largest 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 hosts, saying the world is very different today “but so many divisions are probably , even deeper now “
Next year, Woodward said, there are three major issues that need to be addressed:
—Vaccinating rich and poor people everywhere against coronavirus and taking steps to revive the economies devastated by the pandemic.
—Making climate change a top priority, focusing on preventing temperature rises and raising the billions needed for progress;
—Tackling a number of global security issues.
Woodward said Iran will be a central security issue, whether or not US President-elect Joseph Biden passes with his inclination to join the 2015 nuclear deal that led to President Donald Trump. She cited Iran’s role in other conflicts, including in Yemen and Syria.
There are also security issues in other parts of the Middle East and Africa, where terrorist attacks in the Sahel are of particular concern, as well as security issues related to the protection of digital data.
“I believe that the relations that the new administration (USA) decides to have with all its allies – European partners, NATO allies, the way it builds a relationship with China, will be critical, as well as the way we work together in the UN Council. Security, “said Woodward.