British-based diplomatic posts for key Indo-Pacific countries have been cut by up to 50% in recent years, new figures reveal, sparking accusations that the headline aim of the government’s national security strategy is “hollow rhetoric”.
The numbers working for embassies and consulates in Pakistan, China and India have all been diminishing over the last seven years, despite those countries being identified as key places to deepen ties with over the coming decade.
In the “integrated review”, published in March 2021, ministers announced plans to pursue an “Indo-Pacific tilt” and make Britain the country with “the broadest and most integrated presence” in the region out of any in Europe over the next decade.
But new government figures, seen by the Guardian, show the depleting presence of UK-based staff in missions across several key countries in the region, and a reduction in the number of trips by ministers to countries there.
In 2015, the number of British-based Foreign Office staff was between 110 and 119 in the Pakistan embassy and consulate. This fell to 50-59, a cut equivalent to about 50%.
Over the same timeframe, the number in the China embassy and consulates dropped by around a third, from 110-119 to 70-79.
And in India, the dip over the same seven-year period was from 70-79 to 40-49 – nearly half.
The figures came from the Foreign Office minister David Rutley, in response to written parliamentary questions by the Labour frontbencher Catherine West.
There was also a significant drop-off in engagement with Indo-Pacific countries through ministerial visits.
In 2018, the Foreign Office and international development department – before they were merged – conducted 37 ministerial trips to the region, with some countries visited more than once a year.
But by 2022, the number of ministerial trips conducted was less than a third of that, with just 12 recorded.
The Foreign Office is unable to say even which leaders from the Indo-Pacific attended the official state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September last year.
Jesse Norman, then a Foreign Office minister, said the following month that “attendees were changing, up to and including the day of the state funeral”.
He admitted the Foreign Office was “unable to verify 100% exactly which heads of government from the Asia/Pacific region were both invited to and subsequently attended the state funeral”.
West said the findings showed that the Indo-Pacific tilt was “no more than hollow rhetoric that leaves the UK ill-prepared for the shifting of gravity in world affairs”.
She added: “Labour recognises China’s growing economic and political power as the most significant change in global affairs this century.
“We need to be prepared. Not by ‘tilting’ one way or another, but by following through with a serious, long-term approach to the vital Indo-Pacific region.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson downplayed the significance of the figures, saying they did not give an “accurate picture” of Britain’s presence in the Indo-Pacific region.
They said there were other important metrics such as country-based staff and officials deployed to missions from other government departments.
The spokesperson added: “The reality of our commitment to the Indo-Pacific is shown by results on the ground. In the last three years alone, we have launched the Aukus partnership, signed defence partnerships with Japan and trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand – as well as doubling the number of high commissions we have in the Pacific Islands”.
The reduction in headcount of UK-based staff in China and India is partly due to Covid and how the UK spends its overseas development budget, the Guardian was told. In addition, the number of British high commissions across the Pacific Island countries over the past three years is said to have grown - with resourcing said to be rising in missions in Canberra, Jakarta, and Singapore.
A boost of 16.4% in trade with the Indo-Pacific year-on-year from autumn 2021 to 2022 was also cited as evidence of the UK’s growing influence in the region.
A source close to the foreign secretary said: “Not for the first time Labour haven’t done their homework. There’s a real irony of using hollow rhetoric to accuse the government of hollow rhetoric. The problem for them is when you look at the facts, we have been building more and more on ties and focus on the Indo-Pacific. It’s not a slogan, it’s the future and we’ve already been doing the hard work on the ground while Labour inaccurately and ineffectively snipe on the sidelines.”
