Diplomatic jobs: UK has cut around 50 per cent of diplomatic jobs in countries like India, Pakistan and China in recent years, according to a Guardian report. The number of people working for UK embassies and consulates in these key Indo-Pacific countries has diminished especially in the last seven years, the report said.
The massive job cuts in these countries are happening at a time when the government promotes these countries as key places to deepen ties in the coming decade.
Indo-Pacific tilt announced
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 as part of the ‘integrated review’.
According to the report, in Pakistan, the number of British-based Foreign Office staff in UK embassy and consulate was between 110 and 119 in 2015. It has now dwindled to 50-59.
In the same period, India saw the number fall sharply from 70-79 to 40-49. In the China embassy and consulates the number dropped by around a third, from 110-119 to 70-79.
Foreign Office minister David Rutley revealed these figures in response to written parliamentary questions by the Labour frontbencher Catherine West.
Ministerial trips reduced
Besides, the Foreign Office and international development department conducted 37 ministerial trips to the region in 2018. But the number of ministerial trips reduced to just 12 by 2022, said the report.
Meanwhile a Foreign Office spokesperson downplayed the significance of the figures, claiming that the figures did not provide the real picture of Britain’s presence in the region.
The spokesperson said: “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 report attributed the cause for fall in headcount of UK-based staff in China and India partly to Covid. Foreign Office also said that the number of British high commissions across the Pacific Island countries have increased in the past three years.
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