The new government has shifted the FCO’s aims, Joshua Chambers discovers, with a new focus on producing benefits for UK plc.
It has been a busy few months for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the foreign secretary, and indeed, the prime minister. As well as re-forging existing international relationships – as required on any change of UK regime – the new government is set on building new bonds around the world.
Sitting in the corner office of what he tells me is the “Commonwealth bit” of the FCO, minister of state Lord Howell explains that some of his government’s agenda has been inherited from the previous government, but stresses that “while there is bound to be some continuity, there is a definite changing of gear”.
He summarises the coalition’s foreign policy in three points: “One, the whole world has changed radically; two, we need to adjust to it; three, this particular nation is very well placed to look beyond Europe and beyond its strong American alliance. Both are important, but we must also recognise the nature of trade and investment flows of the modern world, and the huge power shift to Asia.”
There were already efforts to reach out to the fast-growing powers of the 21st century: the so-called BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia (although this is a tempestuous relationship), India and China. The new government has set about the task with renewed vigour – first by seeking a “special relationship” with India.
As part of this drive, the UK sent the largest delegation of ministers to the subcontinent since the days of the Raj. Six cabinet ministers joined David Cameron on his official visit, along with copious numbers of businessmen, cultural representatives and even sportsmen. One of the delegation, the CBI’s outgoing head Richard Lambert, has been touted as a potential High Commissioner to the country; the coalition is keen to promote business champions into government roles overseas.
New trade links are a priority, but the coalition may have other good reasons for seeking to look beyond Europe: the topic split the Tory party for decades, and could very well divide the coalition. However, Howell insists that with the Lisbon Treaty ratified, party differences over Europe are “minutiae”, and don’t present the same threat to government stability that they did in the past: “We had differences in opposition with our Lib Dem colleagues, notably about how to handle the minutiae, the detail of our relations with Europe, but I think as we’ve moved on and the emphasis is beyond Europe, a lot of these European problems just become open to pragmatic solutions.”
Yet while the coalition may be publicly united on Europe, the government’s vision may cause tension within the EU – particularly with France and Germany. The prime minister recently restated his aim of seeing Turkey join the European Union – to which the French and Germans are opposed – and avoided diplomatic subtlety by saying that “we know what it is like to be shut out of the club”.
Howell doesn’t think this stance will present too many problems: “Either you take the lead or you don’t. We think Turkey is now an emerging and important nation, and that is our British view. If in France and Germany they cling to more reserved views or have different views, we’ll take the lead and argue it out with them… for once you’re seeing the British view put forwards very boldly with great conviction by the British prime minister, and now let’s argue it out with the doubters.”
Conviction is one way of describing David Cameron’s more direct style of diplomacy; some observers have been less kind. On his visit to India, the prime minister criticised Pakistan for promoting the “export of terror,” upsetting a crucial ally in the war against terror. David Cameron’s tendency to eschew nuance also caused tensions with Israel, following another frank statement in which he called Gaza a “prison camp”.
Despite these interventions, foreign policy isn’t determined by David Cameron and centred on the Downing Street sofa. A triumvirate set the coalition’s foreign policy: Cameron, Nick Clegg, and William Hague. Howell is positive about this, saying that “I sense much more of a flow of discussion about foreign policy in this government than I sensed when I was in Mrs Thatcher’s government 30 years ago.” Indeed, the FCO’s role in government appears to be waxing – and despite the forthcoming budget cuts, says Howell, “I don’t feel it’s a shrinking department. There will be things we stop doing; there’ll probably be new things we start doing. On the whole, we’re not the big spenders: we’re a small department in budget terms. We’re a big department in policy terms because we’re one of the lead departments, but in budgetary terms we’re tiny. People often make comparisons between our total spend and some of the money flying around in other departments and in the total budget.”
The department has already seen real-terms cuts over the past few years, given the decline in the value of the pound. Other departments may not be sympathetic to this argument, but it could give some protection against further swingeing cuts.
The ministerial team
A popular figure within his party, foreign secretary William Hague consistently topped polls of grassroots Conservatives for his performance in shadow cabinet roles. Having already led his party, he is now more concerned by policy than position, but his standing among party members and MPs remains strong.
Howell is disappointingly reluctant to give, as he puts it, “all sorts of personal comments about my boss”, but he does reveal something of how Hague chairs meetings: he avoids verbal trickery, but “uses humour and analogy in a very skilled way”.
“He has that essential quality and character in British politics: humour,” Howell (pictured below) continues. “If you can get people smiling and seeing the funny side of things, even when they are very serious, you get the message over much better.”
Informality is also important within the department. “In this office we have very full and very frank informal discussions between ministers, but bringing in private offices as well,” he says. “I find these discussions extremely relaxed. I’ve served under many secretaries of state – I’ve been a secretary of state myself – and I have to say that these are some of the easiest that I’ve experienced.”
Hague has five ministers serving him. One is a Liberal Democrat: Jeremy Browne, who deals with much of the southern hemisphere and also the Far East. He has already visited Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Indonesia to promote British industry and is on another trip this summer, attending the inauguration of the Colombian president. A fast riser within his party, although burned by the expenses scandal, he has only been an MP since 2005.
The Europe minister is David Lidington, who was not the presumed choice for the job. In opposition he was Hague’s deputy until 2009, when Mark Francois was promoted and he was demoted. The tables turned when strongly eurosceptic Francois was vetoed by the Liberal Democrats and the more moderate Lidington leapfrogged into the role.
Alistair Burt is responsible for Afghanistan, South Asia, counter-terrorism, the Middle East and North Africa. He is a rare specimen in the Conservative Party: a pro-European who survived from the Major days. Henry Bellingham, parliamentary undersecretary, is a Conservative handling sub-Saharan Africa, the United Nations, climate change and overseas territories.
The fifth minister is Lord Howell. He has particular responsibility for the Commonwealth, which he dubs “a very modern network and brilliant projector of soft power”. His second responsibility is international energy, which, he explains, “covers just about every country, because every country is either an energy consumer or an energy exporter or both”. Enthusiastic about his brief, he shows little sign of his years: 74 of them, to be precise.