UK: Want pacts with India to counter ‘malign actors’

LONDON: The UK wants to strike agreements covering trade and security with India and other freedom-loving democratic countries in the strategic Indo-Pacific region to challenge the influence of “malign actors and authoritarian states”, Britain’s new foreign secretary Liz Truss said on Sunday.
Truss said that she is keen to strike more deals along the lines of AUKUS – the trilateral security alliance between Australia, the UK and the US, which is widely seen as a counter-balance to China.
“We want to work with our friends and allies to create more economic agreements and security agreements. AUKUS is about protecting trade routes and shipping routes specifically with Australia but I want to look at arrangements with India, with Japan and with Canada to expand that security support in the same types of areas,” Truss told The Sunday Times in her first major interview since taking over her new role as the foreign secretary.