Foreign Secretary Dominic Raabwill tomorrow set out how the UK’s
role as a force for good in the world will be the "defining feature
of Global Britain for the next decade”.
In a keynote speech at Aspen Security Forum he will stress the
need for the UK to use its force "because without power, without
economic, military, diplomatic, cultural clout, we can do
nothing".
And he will make clear that our force must be used to increase
global security and living standards, both at home and across the
world, in the face of a decline in democracy around the world.
He will argue that the UK’s force for good ambitions are “the
right thing for a leading power to do, and it is squarely in the
interests of the British people".
Following yesterday’s publication of the Government’s Integrated
Review the Foreign Secretary will explain how it provides a
strategic blueprint for the UK’s foreign policy and national
security approach until 2030.
He is expected to say:
“The Integrated Review provides a road-map, guided by our moral
compass, our history, and our present day mission as a force for
good in the world.
"From our inventors to our entrepreneurs, from our diplomats and
aid experts, to our brave armed forces all the people involved in
delivering Global Britain share the unifying sense that we are
part of a shared planet.
"We believe that we can and should help alleviate the worst
suffering in the world that we have a moral responsibility and an
indivisible stake in our planet, our global economy, our global
eco-system and the conditions of peace and stability that
underpin them.”
The Foreign Secretary will make clear that the UK’s motivation
for its ambitious strategy is underpinned by a recognition that
democracies and the institutions that underpin them are facing
their greatest threat since the end of the Cold War.
He is expected to say:
"Democracy is in retreat. This decade, the combined GDP of
autocratic regimes is expected to exceed the combined GDP of the
world’s democracies, but think about what that means for a
second.
“Tyranny is richer than freedom, and that matters to us here at
home. Because stable, freedom-respecting democracies are much
less likely to go to war, house terrorists or trigger large scale
flows of migrants and they are generally, not always, but
generally easier to trade with, and easier to cooperate with to
solve our shared problems.”
