Foreign Secretary remarks from the NATO Public Forum panel session in
Madrid.
"First of all it’s absolutely imperative that we secure Russia’s
defeat in Ukraine. And it’s imperative for the sake of European
security, freedom and democracy, and it’s the only way that we
are going to achieve a lasting peace in Europe.
There are some who are saying that there could be some
possibility of negotiations now whilst Russia is still in
Ukraine, but I think that would bring a false peace and it would
lead to further aggression in the future.
We have to learn the lessons of the past, the failures of the
Minsk protocol for example, in being able to secure a lasting
peace in the area. So my very strong message is we have to defeat
Russia first, and negotiate later.
And I completely agree with the Australian Prime Minister that we
need to think very carefully about the messages we’re sending to
President Xi.
We’ve seen increased collaboration between Russia and China and
we know that China is watching Ukraine closely. They’re expanding
their military capability and they’re extending their global
influence.
One significant thing today is that we will see in the new
strategic concept put out by NATO specific reference to China.
Because it isn’t just an issue for the Indo Pacific region, it’s
also an issue for Euro Atlantic security.
I do think that with China extending its influence through
economic coercion and building a capable military there is a real
risk that they draw the wrong idea which results in a
catastrophic miscalculation such as invading Taiwan.
That is exactly what we saw in the case of Ukraine, a strategic
miscalculation by Putin, so this is why it’s so important that
the free world work together to help ensure that Taiwan is able
to defend itself and to stress the importance of peace and
stability across the Taiwan Strait.
What we’re doing is making sure that Taiwan has meaningful
participation in international organisations but also working to
strengthen our economic ties with Taiwan, because this isn’t just
about hard security, it’s also about economic security.
I think the lesson we’ve learnt also from the Ukraine crisis is
the increased dependency of Europe on Russian oil and gas
contributed to a sense in which Russia felt enabled to invade
Ukraine because they knew it would be very difficult for Europe
to respond.
So we also need to learn that lesson, I believe, with China of
not becoming strategically dependent on China and in fact making
sure we have strong alternatives. And not just that the free
world has strong alternatives but also allies such as the Pacific
Islands that the Prime Minister was talking about, allies in
South East Asia, allies in Africa and the Caribbean, also have
alternatives to China’s economic investment.
People will have seen at the G7 the announcement of $600bn worth
of investment through the Global Partnership for Infrastructure
Investment Programme and I think that’s a very important
alternative to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. So I think
there were huge lessons we can learn, and we need to learn them
as soon as possible."
