David Cameron missed a golden opportunity to account for Britain’s position on the rise of China during his tour of south-east AsiaAt first glance,David Cameron’s decision to pick south-east Asia as the destination for the first major prime ministerial visit of this parliament makes sense. It’s not only China or India that are rising fast, but also the nations of south-east Asia, and so Britain must “grab opportunities” to trade with these “far-flung lands”,as Cameron is fond of saying.
Yet the prime minister’s whistlestop trade mission to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore and Vietnam was not a trailblazing initiative,as Downing Streets spin doctors would own us believe, but just another reminder of the contempt the government has for the normal instruments of diplomacy.
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Source: theguardian.com