La politique étrangère britannique change...

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La politique étrangère britannique change...

Il est tout de même assez rare d'observer l’intense satisfaction d’un plutôt de centre-gauche, plutôt proche des libéraux, comme l’est The Independent, après un discours d’un secrétaire au Foreign Office conservateur. Certes, le gouvernement est conservateur-libéral, mais il allait de soi que la politique extérieur serait un “domaine réservé” des conservateurs. Eh bien, c’est que les conservateurs ont changé, qu’ils se montrent nettement moins serviles vis-à-vis des USA que les travaillistes (relations “solid but not slavish”), beaucoup plus ouverts sur d’autres domaines que l’anglo-saxon… Cela, en commentaire du discours du secrétaire au Foreign Office William Hague, hier à Londres.

Dans son éditorial de ce 2 février 2010, le quotidien parle d’une “surprisingly liberal world view” et d’un “ promising beginning”…

«The world might have been forgiven for thinking that under the Conservatives British foreign policy would turn inward-looking, small-minded and defensively bellicose. After all, in opposition David Cameron had taken his party out of its alliance with the European centre-right and aligned it with a political grouping which his coalition partner, Nick Clegg, described as a bunch of “nutters, anti-Semites, people who deny climate change exists and homophobes”. Leading Tory thinkers such as George Osborne, Liam Fox and Michael Gove had a touch of the neo-con night about them. Mr Cameron had been unequivocal in his support for the war in Afghanistan. And over everything hung the shadow of an ideological Euroscepticism.

»Thankfully we have seen little of all that. The first visits the new Prime Minister made were to Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy; relations with Europe are flourishing. And though Mr Cameron has established a good relationship with President Obama – all beer and helicopter rides – it has not been one of Blair-like fawning; he has been pragmatic in his statements on BP, pointing out that the oil company, whatever the provenance of its name, is as much an American business as a British one. And he has let it be known that he would like to see British forces out of Afghanistan by 2015, though some have questioned the wisdom of announcing a departure date to the Taliban.

»Yesterday William Hague, in his first major speech as Foreign Secretary, revealed that a vision of breadth and liberality underlies the new Government's analysis of Britain's place in a world where power is shifting, where traditional power blocks are being challenged by emerging economies, and where the UK is slipping down the league table of economic power.

»The strategy Mr Hague outlined in response shows a sense of balance. The US will remain our biggest single international partner but our loyalty will not be slavish. Britain will become more active in the European Union but with an activist's eye for change. Bilateral relations will be built up not just with China, India and Brazil but also Turkey, which is set to become the EU's largest emerging economy. And there will be new emphasis on the Commonwealth, which contains six of the world's fastest -growing economies and which is underpinned by a framework of common values.»

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