On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss visited Moscow for talks with Russia on the situation in Ukraine, displaying her usual belligerent and threatening stance. This has been a characteristic of her from her time in her office, which has seen her unfavorably compared to a version of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded to Truss’s aggressive and uncompromising attitude by publicly brushing her off during the press conference, describing their encounter as talking “to a deaf person” and leading her to make a mistake when mistook Russia’s Voronezh and Rostov regions for parts of Ukraine, saying the UK “will never recognize Russian sovereignty” over them. The disastrous visit has clouded talk of what is widely perceived as her ambition to become prime minister.
At the same time that Truss was ruffling feathers in Russia, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, under pressure in London, upset right-wing MPs after reports that he is ready to restart trade talks with China. The move drew an angry response from the usual suspects in the Conservative Party, Tom Tugendhat and Iain Duncan Smith, who have long called for a tougher stance against Beijing.
Smith has been particularly aggressive in his attempts to undermine the government. While Johnson’s move has long been on the cards, it represents one of the more moderate voices on China in a country that is, to all intents and purposes, committed to strategically fighting it, as seen in efforts from the BBC. to form public opinion.
What these two stories have in common is that they illustrate how Britain has become a sorry joke on the world stage. Post-Brexit, and recasting itself as Global Britain in the belief that it is still a great power, the UK is pursuing a foreign policy that shows a lack of balance and realism regarding its actual circumstances, exposing a series of contradictions.
Arguably no one embodies that sentiment better than Truss. As she confronts the UK’s attempts to snarl at Moscow, right-wing MPs are eager to confront Beijing, all amid an attempt to offset the impact of a Brexit that hasn’t gone as smoothly as hoped.
As I have discussed before, Brexit represents an eruption of 70 years of confusion over Britain’s post-war identity and place in the world: the dilemma of accepting a declining empire and knowing where it truly belongs. Is Britain part of Europe? Or is it an exceptionalist power that should work hand in hand with other Anglophone countries like the United States?
Over the years, this is a pendulum that has swung back and forth, before numerous contemporary factors resulted in Brexit. This has been a game changer for both domestic and foreign policy. An era of the Conservative Party as centrist liberals under David Cameron has ended, and with Boris Johnson in charge, it has seen a shift towards populism and nationalism, fueling a desire for prominence on the world stage. No politician’s career has been more illustrative of this change than Truss herself, who has transformed herself from a stay-conservative advocate into a chest-beating nationalist crusader.
Although Johnson is a self-proclaimed “Sinophile” and initially advocated a pro-China foreign policy in the wake of the need for alternative markets after Brexit, pressure from both the US and right-wing MPs seeking a new adversary after Europe, in the midst of a changing geopolitical context, have made better relations with China unsustainable. The UK needs Beijing as a serious partner, but has already shown its side with initiatives like Aukus.
Given all this, it is not surprising that Russia and China have little inclination to see Britain as already acting in good faith. Beijing has long sought to build deeper economic ties with Britain, but has been surprised by the fanaticism expressed against it and the obvious moves towards restraint. It speaks volumes that former cabinet minister David Davis was quoted in Politico as saying that Britain is on a mission to “make China behave civilly,” a statement that only sends an offensive message to Beijing that the UK remains unapologetic. , arrogant and unchanged from his imperial days.
Given such an attitude, it is not surprising that China has sought to counteract the United Kingdom through its new strategic partnership with Argentina and reiterate its support for Buenos Aires on the Malvinas Islands issue. It represents a fatalism in China’s thinking: that it is futile simply to ask Britain to change or cooperate, and that the hostility shown from London must be met with more teeth.
In Moscow, sentiment is likely to be similar after Truss’s idea of the talks seemed to be to issue threats. It begs the question, is diplomacy with the UK really worth the effort? And more specifically, is Britain really as relevant as it is made out to be? After all, Truss’s threats of sanctions will not determine the outcome in Ukraine, come what may.
In conclusion, we are now looking at a British foreign policy that has much rhetoric, little substance, many threats and few solutions, and seems to have completely abandoned any rational concept of what constitutes the national interest. Brexit Britain has become a sham, which does not deserve to be taken seriously on the international stage.
West abandons plans to phase out SWIFT with Russia – Ukraine-
