(Reuters) – British diplomacy will focus increasingly on building ties with international business to help drive economic growth at home, foreign minister David Lammy will say on Thursday in a speech to business leaders in London.
Lammy will announce new measures to help businesses navigate increasingly fraught geopolitics, in a speech to the British Chambers of Commerce, according to a preview published by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
These include a new Geopolitical Impact Unit, an insight service for businesses involved in international trade.
Lammy will also comment on the resurgence of tariffs in global trade – with Britain hoping to be spared the brunt of U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on many long-standing allies.
“To realise our growth mission, we need to deepen the links between the people sat in this room today, and the civil servants in Whitehall,” Lammy will say, according to an extract of his speech.
He said this would require a “sustained cultural transformation” at the FCDO, where Britain’s diplomats will be encouraged to give equal weigh to business as politics.
“I am in no doubt that delivering all of these changes will require both a serious upskilling and a sustained cultural transformation.”
Lammy will also propose to leading companies an exchange of staff placements to further the understanding of business and diplomacy.
(Reporting by Andy Bruce; editing by Suban Abdulla)
