Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 17
Fourth Report: A brave new Britain? The future of the UK’s international policy
Published 22 Oct 2020
Paragraph 20
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Foreign Affairs Committee The FCDO and the Integrated Review All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The UK should use its convening power and thought leadership to bring together nimble networks of like-minded nations by agreeing a baseline for cooperation between them. These coalitions would be open, issue-based, fleet-footed, overlapping, and even temporary: a ‘vari-lateral’ system.
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, Fourth Report: A brave new Britain? The future of the UK’s international policy (HC 380), paragraph 20, 22 October 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 13 January 2021 (deadline 22 December 2020).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with many of the Committee's recommendations and its assessment of global trends, but disagrees with the characterisation of UK international policy as "adrift" and with the claim that Britain abroad is less than the sum of its parts.
- It disagrees with the claim that "Britain abroad is less than the sum of its parts", saying the creation of the FCDO "enables integration of international development and foreign policy".
- On the Integrated Review's priorities, it says it "would not want to prejudge" the review's outcomes on conflict resolution and soft power, and that the Review "will be published in the new year".
- It does not agree on the need to establish diplomatic missions to leading technology companies, believing engagement "should utilise the existing relationships government holds with key businesses in the sector".
- On aid, it says it will "return to spending 0.7 of GNI on ODA when the fiscal situation allows", having temporarily reduced spending to 0.5% of GNI.