Britain’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss fires broadside at China and supports Australia in keynote party speech

British foreign secretary fires broadside at China and sends message to Australia it stands with us to promote freedom.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warns China at the annual Conservative Party Conference at Manchester. Picture: Getty Images

British foreign secretary Liz Truss fired a broadside at China and sent a warm message to Australia and “our allies from the Baltic to the Tasman’’ that Britain stands with them to promote the cause of freedom.

Ms Truss opened the three-day Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Sunday with a keynote speech noting that while it was important to trade with China, it must be “reliable’’ trade, avoiding strategic dependency and ensuring it doesn’t involve violation of intellectual property rights or technology transfers.

She added: “The world is safer and more prosperous when countries abide by their international obligations. We will also be tough on those who don’t share our values and don’t play by the rules.”

#CPC21 LIVE | Foreign Secretary Liz Truss speak at Conservative Party Conference in Manchester https://t.co/jv6GSgwv6h

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Ms Truss, who was recently promoted to the foreign secretary role after helping to arrange the free trade deal with Australia while trade secretary, announced that Britain would build “coalitions of the willing’’ to advance those democratic causes from a position of strength, delivered through better security, better trade and better development support.

She mentioned the new AUKUS partnership which would help Australia acquire nuclear powered submarines to defend territorial waters, and added that Britain was in talks with Japan about improving military access and closer security ties with India and Canada.

Ms Truss also highlighted how the strike carrier group – spearheaded by the newly launched HMS Queen Elizabeth and currently in the Indo-Pacific in the middle of a seven-month deployment – was demonstrating Britain’s global role.

“We are demonstrating all of this through the visible armed presence of our carrier strike group, we are spending more than two per cent of GDP on defence, that’s the biggest (spend) since the Cold War,’’ she said. “We want our allies from the Baltic to the Tasman to know that Britain stands with them and together we will stand up to our adversaries and promote the cause of freedom.”

Ms Truss also said Britain would forge closer ties with allies like the G7, NATO, Japan and Mexico, South Korea, India, Israel, the Gulf states and those countries that escaped the USSR and fought for freedom. She said she wanted stronger economic ties to build a network around the world in the pursuit of liberty and human rights, but intriguingly failed to name check the European Union or specify any European countries, although several are members of NATO and the G7.

Australia’s high commissioner to the UK, George Brandis, also attended the party conference, speaking on Sunday at a fringe event organised by the Henry Jackson Society. Mr Brandis has often told the Conservatives that Britain has no stronger friend than Australia and he said defending Australia’s democratic values and ensuring the security of cyberspace was critical to national security.