Head of the United Kingdom Foreign Office Simon Fraser visited UC Berkeley Thursday and held a round-table discussion on the United Kingdom’s interest in understanding how the United States approaches Asia-Pacific issues.
At the discussion, entitled “Looking to the Pacific: US-UK Challenges & Perspectives,” Fraser addressed around 25 students, faculty and staff by asking them how the United States — the West Coast, in particular — viewed recent political events in the Middle East, as well as economic relations with Asia.
Fraser, who oversees diplomatic service in Britain, asked how the United States and the United Kingdom respond to an increasingly global economy and the emerging political powers.
“China, of course, is the sort of most visible poster child of this change,” Fraser said, citing the country’s “tremendous economic growth and increasing political presence around the world.” He added that the United Kingdom and the United States face the challenge of how to “balance our economic interests … and our values agenda.”
Fraser said relationships with emerging countries present challenges like differing economic values.
“As we engage with these new emerging powers and they become more prominent, we are not yet achieving convergence in the values agenda or world view,” he said.
Fraser noted that as more countries emerge, long-established countries like the United Kingdom and United States may have to accept a new “international political culture,” in which varying world views and values shape politics and the economy.
Fraser also addressed student protests in an interview with The Daily Californian. He described student demonstrations in Britain over higher education tuition hikes while demonstrators on Sproul Plaza were preparing to protest the same issue.
“It’s part of a broader environment of fiscal restraint in our country and in other countries which is leading to these difficult decisions having to be made,” he said.
He added that British residents are generally sympathetic to the Occupy movement’s concerns over income disparity but are equally concerned with keeping protests “respectful” and “moderate.”
Although the United Kingdom already attracts a large number of international students and immigrants, Fraser said the country is exploring a new approach to fostering relationships with international students from emerging countries by setting up educational institutions in those countries.
“There are difficult political questions about the level of immigration and the strain that it’s putting on public services,” he said. “I think our policy objective is to maintain a healthy balance between protecting the interests of the people living in our country and being open to attract talented people from outside.”
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