THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 25, 2021 at 11:10 JST
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab participates in a meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Jun. 22. (AP Photo)
BANGKOK--British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab met with business leaders and officials in Singapore on Thursday as he wrapped up a three-nation trip to Southeast Asia aimed at strengthening his country’s ties to the region.
Raab’s trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore is part of a policy “tilt” toward the Indo-Pacific region recommended by a recent British government review of defense and foreign policy in response to China’s growing influence on the world stage.
While in the region he officially launched Britain’s bid to join a trans-Pacific trade bloc, known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and lobbied for “dialogue partnership” status with the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.
In Singapore, he met with his counterpart, Vivian Balakrishnan, to discuss both of those initiatives, Raab said on Twitter.
The two also talked about a “shared approach towards addressing regional priorities such as climate change, Myanmar, travel and recovery from COVID-19,” he wrote.
Before his talks with the foreign minister, Raab took part in a meeting with British and Singaporean business representatives, discussing “supply chain digitalization,” which he said could save 4 billion paper documents globally per year.
The trip was Raab’s fifth visit to Southeast Asia as foreign secretary.
Britain’s foreign minister meets with Cambodian officials for trade talks
June 24, 2021
U.K. and Japan agree to strengthen trade and security partnership
May 4, 2021With eye on China, Japan’s Suga seeks tighter ties with Vietnam, Indonesia
October 16, 2020
Japan, Britain in sync on halting China's maritime advances
February 4, 2021U.K. suspends extradition arrangements with Hong Kong
July 21, 2020
G7 to consider mechanism to counter Russian ‘propaganda,’ U.K.’s Raab says
May 3, 2021
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
