Prime Minister Keir Starmer: 'This is just the beginning of our relationship with the Indo-Pacific to benefit the UK'
The UK will increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific under this government to drive growth and prosperity and support regional stability, the Prime Minister will say today.
- UK to further commitment to the region with joint patrols to protect vital maritime routes and pacific economies
- Carrier Strike Group to visit Singapore in 2025 to further strengthen defence and security ties with Indo-Pacific partners
- New Pacific Business Club to act as a launchpad for UK investment opportunities in the region.
The UK will increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific under this government to drive growth and prosperity and support regional stability, the Prime Minister will say today.
As the Prime Minister prepares to end his visit in Samoa, he will say that as a responsible global actor, UK’s foreign policy cannot just be dealing with the challenges close to home, but also helping to tackle the problems faced by friends and partners further afield.
The Pacific is at the forefront of many global challenges, from climate change to maritime security.
As part of that commitment, the Prime Minister will announce today that the UK will expand its Royal Navy presence in the Indo-Pacific, including a greater breadth of joint patrols with Pacific Island nations, to reinforce maritime security, respond to natural disasters and combat illegal fishing.
It comes after the Royal Navy ran its first ever counter illegal fishing patrols in the Pacific, mounted jointly with New Zealand and Fiji. The Royal Navy will now extend this offer to other Pacific Island Countries to support the sovereignty of small island states and help them to protect vital maritime routes and maritime economies that are the lifeblood of the region.
The UK has two patrol vessels persistently deployed in the Indo-Pacific, including HMS Tamar, which has been providing critical security support to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting this week.
It comes as the Prime Minister prepares to meet his Singaporean counterpart, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, following the Defence Secretary John Healey hosting his Singaporean counterpart in London on Thursday.
During the bilateral this morning, the leaders will announce that as part of the UK ’s Carrier Strike Group deployment to the Indo-Pacific in 2025, HMS Prince of Wales will visit Singapore. The visit will further strengthen defence and security ties between the two countries.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:
My visit to the Pacific this week has only reinforced how important this part of the world is to the United Kingdom’s prosperity and security, and I know across business, trade and defence, we play a vital role in supporting the region too.
As responsible international players, we cannot turn a blind eye to the challenges faced by our friends and partners on the other side of the world, so my message today is clear: this is just the beginning of our commitment to the Indo-Pacific.
Combining expertise, local knowledge and investment, I truly believe we can create unique opportunities for people both in the Pacific and at home, and in doing so, we play our part in ensuring a safer, fairer world.
The UK’s expansion into the region will also be focused on growth, with the government set to open the door to further UK investment opportunities.
The UK will also unveil a new ‘Pacific Business Club’ alongside the Australian Government to increase opportunity for UK businesses in developing economies in the region.
Acting as a launchpad for British investors into the region, it will bring businesses and regional governments together to discuss opportunities and ways to overcome any barriers and help business bid for $6 billion of multilateral development bank contracts.
The UK is partnering with the Australian Government to deliver this support, providing access to established Australian networks, including through AusTrade and the Australia-Pacific Islands Business Council and associated Australian Business Councils for Papua New Guinea and Fiji.
And to further reinforce UK support for the Pacific, the UK will contribute a further capital funding, which will be set out in due course, to the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company, which the UK helped to establish in 2016.
The Pacific is one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world - the World Bank estimates that natural disasters will cost Pacific Island Countries 2-3% of GDP.
The company provides insurance against cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis at affordable rates. This innovative approach reduces cost, including for the UK, of responding to disasters when they hit.
Alongside the New Zealand government, the UK is also bolstering renewable energy projects in the Pacific. The two governments will work together on a new project to develop a pipeline of renewable energy schemes for the Pacific, using private investment to fund the programme and unlock opportunities, including for British businesses, to move into the market.
The project is aimed at harnessing the Pacific’s tropical environment to radically reduce reliance on dirty diesel generators in the region, which, in turn, will cut carbon emissions. The Foreign Secretary and his New Zealand counterpart are expected to announce further details later this year.
Meanwhile, the UK has also provided its backing for the Ocean Declaration, put forward by CHOGM hosts Samoa, to protect one of the world’s most precious ecosystems.
The Declaration includes a call to action on plastic pollution, which is on track to triple in the global ocean by 2040.
The UK has already provided crucial support to Fiji to support Pacific Islands in establishing waste and recycling infrastructure and will also support the Ocean Declaration’s ambition for concluding negotiations for an ambitious global agreement on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, by the end of this year.
In agreeing the Declaration, the UK will also update its position to agree that maritime boundaries established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS) can remain fixed in the face of sea-level rise caused by the climate crisis.
This move will support the interests of small island developing states, including in the Pacific, in protecting their natural resources, national security and fishing rights in the face of climate change.