Brexit LIVE: Raab signs Britain up to 10-nation trade club in major win after leaving EU.
THE UK is being signed up to a 10-nation trade superclub in a major boost for Brexit Britain as the country becomes the first new partner of the Southeast Asian bloc with a combined GDP of £2.3trillion in 25 years.
PUBLISHED: 07:41, Thu, Aug 5, 2021 Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is attending a virtual signing ceremony with the nations that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), with the UK joining its “dialogue partner” club in a major post-Brexit boost. Stronger ties to these nations, which are Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Brunei, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam, include underscoring new British jobs. It will see the UK invited to attend annual meetings of foreign and economic ministers, discussing in great depth issues around trade, investment, climate change, the environment, science and technology, and education.
Other formal partners of the bloc include the US, European Union, China, India, Japan and Russia.
This is a major boost, as it is part of Britain's wider push towards the Indo-Pacific in pursuit of a post-Brexit vision of “Global Britain” which will also include ramping up security and trade partnerships.
Mr Raab said joining the exclusive club will offer Brexit Britain a raft of opportunities, while also mitigating threats as the global “matrix of risk” evolves in the coming decades.
The Foreign Secretary added it is crucial to find ways to “positively influence China” in the region, but warned: “It's not all about China, it's about positive opportunities. The Indo-Pacific is the growth market of the future, if you take a 10-year period.
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