London, 5 October 2021 (GNP/TDI): British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss explained her foreign policy goals at the Conservative Party Conference 2021. Liz Truss has recently assumed the office of the foreign secretary. She explained what her ‘network of liberty’ means and how she is creating connections around the world to crystallize it.
She has been using the phrase ‘network of liberty’ to explain her relationship with democracies around the world. She explained that during a time of immense global change – because of the pandemic – the values of freedom and democracy must be advanced and protected. She stressed that the free world should set the standard of technological advancement, not the authoritarian regimes.
She clarified that other than the USA, the UK will be developing close defence and economic partnerships with Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Gulf states, and the NATO members. She stressed that because of the shared values of human rights and freedom, these strategic partnerships are inevitable.
Liz Truss has met with many leaders from the aforementioned countries on the sidelines of the 76th United Nations General Assembly. She remarked that Britain is now spending more than two percent of its national budget on defence – the highest since the Second World War. She explained that Britain also needs to forge closer ties with the Baltic 3 (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam).
She emphasized the importance of this network of freedom by stating that to keep the peace, the UK will uphold and advance values that create peace.