UK Foreign Secretary to visit Caribbean and South America for future ties

James Cleverly will visit four countries to renew UK relations in the region

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. EPA

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly will announce funding to help protect the climate and security in the Caribbean and South America during a four-country trip to “renew and enhance” ties with the region.

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office said Mr Cleverly would offer UK support for the Amazon rainforest and the battle against serious and organised crime.

Mr Cleverly will travel to Jamaica, Colombia, Chile and Brazil during the seven-day trip, focused on issues including democracy, the environment and shared values.

In Kingston, Jamaica, he will announce £15 million ($19 million) in funding in a partnership to address organised crime, and up to £7 million to protect the island from flooding and coastal erosion.

Mr Cleverly will then head to South America to deliver a keynote speech on the UK’s future relationship with the region.

It will be the first visit by a UK foreign secretary to the Caribbean since 2017 and the first to South America since 2018.

“This is a milestone year in the history of UK relations with countries across Latin America and the Caribbean," Mr Cleverly said.

“While I look forward to celebrating our close bonds of friendship and family, I am also here to renew and enhance our ties for the years ahead.

“It is a partnership that will be marked and strengthened by our shared values of freedom, democracy and concern for the state of our planet.”

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In Colombia, he is expected to announce new UK support and funding for peace and tackling climate change by protecting the Amazon, according to the Foreign Office.

Mr Cleverly will visit the Amazon frontier region of Guaviare before giving a speech in Chile’s capital Santiago, setting out the UK’s approach to South America and like-minded powers around the world.

The speech will refer to the bicentenary of UK-Latin America relations in British embassies across the continent, 200 years after the region’s struggle for independence from colonial rule.

The visit will end in Brazil, where Mr Cleverly will sign a “climate partnership” with his hosts on green growth, and travel to the Amazon.

The Foreign Office said he would emphasise the UK’s support for Brazilian democracy at the National Congress, which was attacked by a mob of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro in January after his electoral defeat.

The government has already joined the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, in a trade deal that includes Chile and Peru.

It was Britain’s biggest trade deal since leaving the EU but critics say the effects will be limited, with official estimates suggesting it will add only £1.8 billion a year to the economy after 10 years, representing less than 1 per cent of UK GDP.

The government’s updated integrated review in March reinforced a post-Brexit “tilt” towards the Indo-Pacific region as a “permanent pillar” of British foreign policy, as well as deeper ties with other influential actors such as South America.