Asia is a large continent and on the face of that fact alone it appears to offer many opportunities. It may be that many business envoys in the past have returned showing agreements that have been signed with their counterparts in the region. However, it’s not clear how many of these have actually been put to good use.
The reality is that Asian countries are also highly advanced in their own way and they are very aware of the implication of approaches from other parts of the world. In fact, their Intelligence structures are known to be among the best in the world. This makes it a complex exercise to approach any Asian nation in terms of trade and political relations.
The attempt of the Prime Minister recently to build further trade relations with China had a small measure of success only. It’s because every person has to play their part in order to satisfy the need of the Chinese leadership to trust people. It’s not always done by a UK delegation because it’s believed that one person can always lead the effort.
A Prime Minister is obviously going to be the person who is going to insist that the UK benefits whatever the final decision is. But this does not determine how the negotiations go, or what is discussed, or what the final outcome is. It’s believed that a Prime Minister can focus on national security concerns when it comes to trade as they’re able to focus on this as a priority above others.
This fits with the realities of the region because in the past such dialogue has resulted in conflict in real theatres of war. We don’t want to run that risk and we think that an intelligent Prime Minister is able to help us mitigate the problems of such nations being so clever. It’s a proper focus because it keeps a conscious level to any considerations.
There would be those that disagree – of course – and they will still try to maximise returns based on a naivety that is inherent in some academic study here. It’s not part of the way we think collectively but it is the agenda that has funding and tries to make a way still for itself. It has to be kept on the outside, or at the periphery, so that we can do well overseas.
