Liz Truss tells Nato to reconsider trading with China

Liz Truss told Nato that the UK and other countries should reconsider trading relationships with countries that have used economic power in coercive ways, because China would be making a catastrophic miscalculation if it invaded Taiwan.

The British foreign secretary said trade should be directed at countries that can be trusted as a result of how far UK government attitudes towards China have changed since the self-declared golden decade under David Cameron.

Speaking at the Madrid summit, Truss said that with China expanding its strategic ambitions, the new strategic concept of Nato should reference China specifically, the alliance's core mission last updated in 2010 and is due to be revamped.

With China extending its influence through economic coercion and building a capable military, there is a real risk that they draw the wrong idea that will cause a catastrophic miscalculation, such as invading Taiwan, according to Truss, speaking alongside Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, and Alexander De Croo, the Belgian prime minister.

One area addressed by the G 7 summit in southern Germany, which ended earlier this week, was the efforts to roll out more western infrastructure money for developing nations, a response to China s so-called belt and road programme, which seeks to bring influence through similar investment.

Due to the threat from both China and Russia, there was a need to reach outward and create that network of freedom of fellow like-minded countries Truss argued.

She said that countries like the UK could rethink their approach to trade with Beijing and that the G 7 countries and nations such as Australia should use their economic weight to challenge China.

She said that historically, we haven't used that economic power. We ve been equidistant about who we trade with, who we work with. And I think countries are more focused now on, is this trade with trust, do we trust this partner? Are they going to use it to undermine us, or are they going to use it for the mutual benefit of both of our economies? Trade has become more geopolitical. Speaking before the Commons foreign affairs committee on Tuesday, Truss went beyond the standard government language on Taiwan by saying there was a need to provide the island with defensive weapons.

We should have done things earlier. She said that we should have been supplying the defensive weapons into Ukraine earlier. The sooner we do it, the better. Every piece of equipment we send takes months of training.