Britain targets influence in Indo-Pacific as counterweight to China

Britain wants to expand its influence among democratic nations in the Indo-Pacific region while preserving strong ties with the United States, a document laying out the country's post-Brexit foreign policy priorities says.

 

Putting Britain at odds with China, the biggest review of British foreign and defence policy since the end of the Cold War three decades ago sets out how Boris Johnson wants to be at the forefront of a rules-based international order.

 

Calling the Indo Pacific “increasingly the geopolitical centre of the world”, the government highlighted a British aircraft carrier deployment to the region and announced a previously postponed visit to India will go ahead in April. China should be brought into efforts to reduce the global stock of nuclear weapons, Johnson said.

 

"We're committed to nuclear arms reduction, and indeed we believe that China should be brought into strategic nuclear arms reduction," Johnson said.

 

Chemical or dirty bomb terror attack likely by 2030, UK warns

 

The world is likely to suffer a successful chemical, biological or so-called dirty bomb attack by terrorists over the next 10 years, the UK has warned. Under a blueprint for the next decade, the UK will bolster its arsenal of nuclear missiles  by more than 40 per cent.