Canning House plays such vital role in bringing the UK and Latin America closer together, and I saw this for myself recently when I sat down with business leaders to discuss some of the opportunities and challenges facing companies operating across the region.
It is fantastic see so many of you here for the launch of the Latin America Outlook 2025. It is a great document – I highly recommend it – and it speaks volumes about the depth and breadth of the relationships between people here in the UK and across Latin America, that we are all here today to build on.
Before I say anything else, I want to underline just how much of an honour it is to serve as the UK’s Minister for Latin America at the Foreign Office. And over the past five months, I’ve had the great privilege of visiting Ecuador, Mexico and Colombia as well as the Caribbean, as well as of meeting ambassadors, businesses, journalists, campaigners and others here in London.
And it is clear to me that Latin America matters immensely to the UK. It should matter an awful lot more than it currently does.
A lot of reasons for this. We share a historic connection, spanning over 200 years of cultural, economic and diplomatic ties, from the days of Admiral Lord Cochrane and John Illingworth supporting growing independence movements across the region right through to the present day, and the bicentenaries that we will celebrate with Argentina, Brazil and Colombia next year.
These ties are more relevant I think today than ever.
For our part, this new UK government – across the whole of government, not just the FCDO – is committed to being an outward-looking, reliable, respectful, and genuine partner – as we reconnect with partners in the Global South and around the world – to deliver on our shared priorities of Growth, Climate, and Security.
As you all will know, the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has set us all a mission to deliver sustainable economic growth, bringing opportunities to people across our country.
To meet the challenges of growth, we must look beyond our traditional markets and industries. And I think Latin America will be key to this vision, with a population of some 660 million people and a combined GDP of nearly $6 trillion dollars. Too big to ignore.
During my visits, I have seen first-hand the benefits of UK-Latin America business cooperation, and the opportunities that are available to us all.
For example, in Ecuador, this was my first visit to Latin America. I was treated to the glamour of a tour of a waste treatment plant in Quito, Hydro Industries, which was working with British businesses, including those from the Welsh Valleys to provide clean drinking water for the population, employing and training local people, so they have got the skills they need to run this plant safely. The Mayor of Quito was delighted with this, and it shows that the UK is seen as a good partner to work with for projects such as this.
When I visited Mexico to attend the inauguration of President Sheinbaum, I signed an MoU with the Mexican Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development, focused on boosting trade and advancing sustainable agriculture, as we renew our partnership with a huge and important G20 friend.
With Colombia and Peru, we discussed ways to strengthen our partnerships on infrastructure, including on the railways – and just to throw in and leverage my former position as MP for Darlington – that 2025 marks 200 years since the birth of the modern railway in Darlington, and which makes us an obvious partner on infrastructure projects.
We already benefit from four trade agreements with the region, and the UK’s imminent accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) – joining Chile, Mexico, and Peru – we hope this will bring new opportunities for businesses here in the UK and in Latin America.
When it comes to business and trade, there is room to do so much more than we are at the moment. Latin America is a place of enormous opportunities and the challenge for all of us over the next five years, is to turn those opportunities into reality, and that is where Canning House plays such a crucial role.
But pursuing mutual economic growth cannot come at the expense of our climate and natural environment.
As the Foreign Secretary said in his Kew Gardens speech, tackling the climate and nature crisis will be central to all the Foreign Office does.
More than half of the global economy – $58 trillion dollars – is moderately or highly dependent on nature. Latin America’s is the global centre of biodiversity, it is extraordinary.
Latin America is absolutely central to this fight. The region is home to a quarter of the world’s tropical forests, a third of global reserves of freshwater, and a quarter of the world’s land that you can farm – making it vital to our climate and nature ambitions.
On my visit to Ecuador, we drove through the mountains out of Quito, into the Amazon rainforest and it was just awe inspiring – but in the Amazon, we are witnessing some of the worst droughts on record. We have seen forest fires wreaking devastation across the northern Andean region, Brazil, and Paraguay. In Central America, we are seeing climate-related displacements not seen before in the region, and that is on top of political driven migration.
The region is on the front line of the climate and nature crisis, but it cannot solve these challenges alone.
That’s why partnership with the UK is so important. We are committed to working with Latin American nations to protect the environment and promote sustainable development – and the Minister for Development has reaffirmed the UK’s mission to create a world free from poverty, on a liveable planet.
At the CBD Biodiversity COP in Cali, we announced a further £45 million for the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund to support biodiversity projects in Latin America and across the world.
At the climate COP in Baku, we announced a £25m commitment to support developing countries in preparing and implementing their national climate plans and pledges under the Paris Agreement – work we will build on, and we are looking forward to COP30 in Brazil next year.
We also pledged £239 million to tackle deforestation, including in Colombia, recognising the critical role of forests in tackling the climate and nature crisis.
In Ecuador, this was one of the meetings that will stick with me for the rest of my life. I was honoured to meet Domingo Peas and to hear about the incredible work he has been doing educating a new generation of Indigenous leaders in the Amazon. I was really pleased to see that he was nominated for the Prince of Wales Earthshot Prize – as was the High Ambition Coalition for People and Nature.
The UK is proud to chair our work on the ocean, working with Costa Rica, Ecuador and others to protect our precious ocean.
And just as pursuing growth cannot come at the expense of climate and natural environment, addressing the climate crisis we face today provides opportunities for sustainable growth in Latin America and here in the UK.
We have a shared focus on sustainable infrastructure, security of supply in critical minerals, and the potential of green hydrogen, as we work towards the global transition to clean energy.
At the recent G20 in Rio, the Prime Minister launched the new UK-led Global Clean Power Alliance to speed up the global drive for clean power, bringing developed and developing countries together across the north and south.
And it is crucial that we do work in genuine partnership with the Global South. Because the climate and nature crisis is driving instability and compounding the suffering of the poorest and most vulnerable around the world – including in Latin America.
If by tackling climate change, we can deliver sustainable economic development, then it is also true that insecurity can be a significant barrier – at a national, regional, and global scale – limiting growth, driving inequality, diverting public investment, and spurring migration, as people are forced to flee their homes and their homelands. And until we deal with insecurity and organised crime, I think we will always struggle.
A healthy democracy is an important insurance policy against insecurity. We have been vocal in our support for democratic principles across the region, and will continue to defend those who stand up for these values, whether that is in Venezuela, Nicaragua, or anywhere else.
The UK will also stand together with countries in Latin America in the fight against Serious Organised Crime.
Because their challenge is our challenge, and we need to own this. 80% of the drugs arriving in Europe come from Ecuador. It is European countries like the UK who are driving the demand for this cocaine, which is causing so much misery and insecurity across Latin America and on the streets here in the UK. And we do need to everything we possibly can to deal with that market – this our fight not just theirs.
As I said at the first global conference on Violence Against Children in Bogotá last month – any secure, peaceful society depends on the wellbeing of its young people. This has really struck me – every politician I spoke to in Latin America wants to talk about their young people. They see their ambition and future in their young people.
So we have a responsibility to work with our partners in countries like Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, to tackle these international criminal gangs, and provide the stability and security that we all need here in the UK, yes, and across Latin America.
Looking ahead to 2025, there is always more to do together. To deliver sustainable economic growth, to tackle the climate and nature crisis and to strengthen national, regional, and global security.
But I am confident that we will do so, and that the people-to-people connections between our countries will only grow stronger.
Whether that’s the hundreds of thousands of Brits visiting Latin America each year; or the thousands of Chevening scholars studying at UK universities – the outstanding cadets training alongside the next generation of British military officers at Dartmouth and Sandhurst, I was Dartmouth on Thursday talking to cadets from Uruguay and Chile – it was incredible…or the more than 100 million people across the Americas benefitting from the work of the British Council, strengthening cultural, educational and business ties.
So, friends, thank you once again for all that you do, to make sure that the UK and Latin America continue to grow together.
Building on 200 years of shared history, we want to work in genuine partnership to build a more prosperous, more sustainable, and more secure future for all – here in the UK and across Latin America.
Thank you.
