22 July 2009 : Financial Times
By James Blitz and George Parker in London
William Hague, the UK's shadow foreign secretary, released an international policy agenda for a Conservative government yesterday that envisages forging close relations with the US, the Commonwealth, China and Russia over the next few years in a bid to promote Britain's role on the world stage.
In an address on the Conservatives' foreign policy prospectus, Mr Hague appeared to suggest Britain's relationship with the European Union would be downgraded if the opposition won the election, indicating the EU was one of a number of international institutions that urgently needed reform.
As the Conservatives prepare for an election that is certain to take place in the spring, Mr Hague had positive words for many of the UK's alliances in the world.
Addressing the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, he said a Conservative government would be "solid but not slavish" in relations with the US, but otherwise said the transatlantic alliance was "indispensable to the United Kingdom".
He said relations with the British Commonwealth - which includes India and South Africa - had been "neglected and undervalued" under Britain's Labour government, adding that the Commonwealth was "a tool to be picked up and used more often" in British foreign policymaking.
Mr Hague also said it was in the UK's strategic national interest to have "an effective and strong relationship" with China and that "with a Conservative government, the door will be open to improved relations with Russia".
Mr Hague's few comments on the EU were mostly negative.
He said the EU was "one of the institutions [in the world] which must adapt to the changing distribution of world economic and political weight".
He also reasserted the Conservatives' opposition to "the greater centralisation of power in the EU, as embodied in the Lisbon treaty".
"Institutional centralisation will not supply, and is even displacement activity for, what Europe really needs to develop in world affairs, which is the political will to use its collective weight effectively and a focus on practical results."
After the speech, one senior official from a EU nation said he was dismayed.
"If this is really how they view things, then there is going to be a very difficult relationship between Britain and the EU if the Conservatives win."
