- Foreign Secretary speech will set out plans for the UK to
challenge new forms of hybrid attacks from hostile
actors
- Defending collective security and ensuring resilience against
threats to democracies worldwide will be key part of the Foreign
Secretary's intervention
- A range of new measures to expose and disrupt harmful
activities against the UK will be announced
In a speech to mark the centenary of the Locarno Treaties, the
Foreign Secretary, will call for a revival of
international collaboration to tackle the growing range of hybrid
threats facing the UK and its allies, and announce a series of
significant actions against hostile state backed disinformation,
interference and cyber threats.
“…Across Europe we are witnessing an escalation in hybrid
threats - from physical through to cyber - designed to weaken
critical national infrastructure, undermine our interests and
interfere in our democracies all for the advantage of malign
foreign states.”
Speaking to senior diplomats and European dignitaries in the
historic Locarno Suites, the Foreign Secretary will set out the
importance of defending our collective security and protecting
democracy. She will deliver her remarks at an event co-hosted
with the Swiss Embassy, attended by Dominique Paravicini, the
Ambassador of Switzerland to the United Kingdom and Nicola Pini,
the Mayor of Locarno. Her speech will take place in the very room
where the Locarno Treaties were signed at the Foreign &
Commonwealth Office, known as the Locarno Grand Reception Room.
The Locarno Treaties, signed in December 1925, were a series of
agreements aimed at promoting peace and stability.
“…A hundred years ago, such malign actors or state sponsored
disrupters, may have relied on expertly forged documents or
carefully planted stories to manipulate public opinion, but
today's technology is lowering the barrier to entry - meaning
more actors, with less skill, can work on behalf of regimes
abroad.”
“…They can interfere with free and fair elections, so that
Western interests are weakened and lose allies on the global
stage.”
“... By flooding social media with generative AI and
manipulated videos, they can gradually undermine support for our
major allies like Ukraine with lies - hitting our collective
resolve to support Ukraine's resistance to Russia's illegal
invasion.”
“… This isn't about legitimate debate on contentious issues.
Plenty of people in the UK have strong views on migration, gender
and climate. But they are our debates to have - not those for
foreign states to use as their playground, trying to sow division
to advance their own interests.”
The Foreign Secretary will call for a renewed international focus
on exposing and tackling “information warfare” – a hybrid threat
that is targeting our security.
In a wide-ranging speech, the Foreign Secretary will also talk
about the Locarno spirit today and about countries coming
together in new ways to tackle the most serious global security
threats – for example in Ukraine through the Coalition of the
Willing, or in Gaza through the Sharm El Sheikh support for the
20-point peace plan. But she will warn that increased
international cooperation is urgently needed on Sudan, where the
world is still badly failing to prevent horrendous atrocities and
famine.
The speech will take place on Tuesday
afternoon.
ENDS
Background
- In the Moldovan elections two months ago, we saw operations
creating fake websites and political adverts designed to be the
spitting image of material from the PAS party but with fabricated
and unpopular policies – including hiking the retirement age and
lengthening military service. All designed to subvert public
dialogue and the electoral outcome.
- Across Africa, videos have been laundered through fake news
sites with false claims about the Ukrainian President and his
wife – all designed to undermine support for Ukraine.
- And here in the UK, Russian agencies responsible for vast
malign online networks like Doppelgänger, who specialise in
flooding social media with counterfeit documents and deepfake
material in English, German, and French, to advance Russia's
strategic aims.
- In 2024, evidence suggests that automated online traffic
surpassed human activity for the first time, with malicious bots
accounting for more than a third of all messages.
