LONDON: Britain on Wednesday defended the need for critical engagement with China on climate change and trade, after drawing criticism for soft-pedalling troublesome issues with the world’s second economy in a new global strategy paper.

In a virtual address to the Aspen Security Forum in the US, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said a “calibrated approach” was required towards China after the government signalled a strategic UK shift post-Brexit towards the Asia-Pacific region.

“China is here to stay. We don’t believe that we’re harking back to an old Cold War mentality or paradigm. There are positives, and we ought to look for the areas of constructive engagement, obviously business and trade,” he said.

Previewing Britain’s hosting of the UN COP 26 summit in November, Raab added that “we’re not going to shift the dial on climate change unless we can engage in some kind of cooperation with China”.

“At the same time, we’re absolutely resolute about standing up robustly and rigorously where British interests are affected, whether it’s intellectual property or critical national infrastructure.” Raab added that Britain had also shown it was “standing up for our values” over Hong Kong, Xinjiang and the right to free navigation in the South China Sea, where he said Beijing was guilty of a “wholesale assault” on international law.