Expand strategic, trade alliances

Like Joe Biden in the US, Boris Johnson is demonstrating his commitment to multilateral strategic priorities. Post-Brexit, the British Prime Minister wants his nation to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, commonly known as the TPP-11, the 11-nation Pacific Rim free-trade bloc known originally as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Australia played a crucial role in establishing. He also has signalled his determination to expand the June summit of G7 nations in Cornwall into a “D10 of the world’s leading democracies” aimed at countering Chinese expansionism. Australia, India and South Korea would join the group alongside G7 members the US, the UK, Japan, France, Germany, Canada and Italy. With Britain sending its biggest flotilla of warships to Asia in a generation, Mr Johnson also has raised the prospect of joining the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, the “Asian NATO”, that groups the US, Australia, India and Japan in an increasingly important regional security alliance focused on Chinese regional militarism.

At any time, Mr Johnson’s moves “to show UK global leadership post-Brexit” would be significant. At a time when the new US President has indicated his commitment to a similar strategy, their approaches indicate how quickly some things have changed since Donald Trump left the White House. Gone, thankfully, is Mr Trump’s recurring attempt to inveigle his anti-democratic friend, Vladimir Putin, back into the G7. And in one of his first acts as president, Mr Trump short-sightedly withdrew the US from the TPP. Like Mr Johnson in his search for post-Brexit trading partners, Mr Biden recognises the value of a vast trading bloc with 500 million consumers that is crucial to countering China’s growing regional economic muscle.

Mr Biden is strongly supportive, too, of Mr Johnson’s drive to remake the G7 as a coalition of democratic nations. The US President’s newly appointed “Asia tsar”, Assistant Secretary of State for Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell, has welcomed the D10 proposal and potential expansion of the Quad. Such moves, he said, would send a powerful message “that there are risks to China’s present course”.

Achieving those aims, Mr Campbell acknowledges, is likely to be “among the most challenging in the recent history of American statecraft”. That would require solid backing from the other nations involved. France and Italy, for example, are unhappy about Mr Johnson’s plan to use the Cornwall summit to place a reformed G7 in the vanguard of countering Chinese expansionism. They should not be. Mr Johnson has shown foresight about issues that should concern all democracies.

Mr Trump showed strength in confronting China over trade. But what is needed now, as Mr Biden said, is a broadbased alliance of democracies capable of confronting and dealing with Chinese expansionism. That is especially the case amid rising tensions over Taiwan, with Beijing warning any attempt to declare its independence “will mean war”. Mr Johnson is right to see the advantages for Britain in a much closer trade relationship with our region. EU leaders should stop carping and recognise their own interests lie in following Mr Johnson’s strategic lead.