Strengthening Old Ties
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In this issue, we bring you excerpts from an interview the British High Commissioner to Brunei – H.E. John Virgoe – had with our sister company VOICE OF ASEAN on its VoiceS of ASEAN talk show. Read on to find out more about British-Bruneian ties and how the UK is focused on strengthening its relationship with Southeast Asia as a whole.
I have been the British High Commissioner in Brunei for about 18 months now following my appointment in August 2020.
It’s a fantastic honour to represent the UK in Brunei. Naturally, being an ambassador anywhere is a huge privilege, but especially so in a country with which we have such a close and warm relationship. In fact, I have previously described Brunei as the UK’s closest friend in the region.
This year is my 30th anniversary as a diplomat, and a lot of it has been in and around Southeast Asia. In fact, I started my diplomatic career in Jakarta, Indonesia. So it is nice to be in another part of Southeast Asia.
It is fascinating to be here, learning about Brunei and the connections between Brunei and the UK. There have been many highlights of my time here, such as being able to meet His Majesty – first when I presented my credentials to him and more recently in December last year when I joined him during his visit to the UK.
During that visit, His Majesty met the British Prime Minister and visited the UK Commando Training Centre where his son HRH Prince Mateen was graduating. And this demonstrates the close defence relations we have with one another.
We had a British destroyer in the Brunei harbour last year. Brunei also hosts the British Garrison, which is our most significant military base in Asia. That consists of a battalion of Gurkha soldiers from the UK army, and some other elements as well.
Building on Synergies
Brunei is moving towards the 21st century and beyond oil and gas. That’s something that we’re really keen to help with. During my career, I’ve worked a lot on climate change and it is fantastic to be in a country that maintains over 70 percent of its primary rainforests. That’s a huge achievement, and something that we really want to work with Brunei and build on.
The education ties between Brunei and the UK are fantastic as well. I have met so many younger and older Bruneians who studied in the UK. Our legal ties also go a long way back because we share a common legal heritage.
Since I’ve been here, we have been doing a lot to nurture and strengthen the ties between the UK and Brunei’s judiciaries. For example, last year we ran a small lecture series with senior judges in the UK. Of course, in normal circumstances, we would have brought them out to Brunei.
In terms of trade and investments, at the moment direct trade links between Brunei and the UK are limited. However, there are some very long standing investments in the oil and gas sector by British and EU companies in Brunei, particularly through Shell.
However, as mentioned, things are moving away from oil and gas and towards the energy transition. So we are working with Brunei on the decommissioning and restoration of old oil rigs and the environment. We are doing the same in the North Sea, so we are happy to share our experience and expertise in this area. In addition, we are also looking at how we can work with Brunei on advancing renewable energy.
Brunei is also a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP), which is a huge multilateral trade agreement that the UK is seeking to join. This is in line with our decision to promote free trade globally. If we are successful with our application, we and the other members of CPTTP – including Brunei will have more trade opportunities in the future.
From Brunei to ASEAN
One of the big highlights of my time in Brunei, was when the UK became an ASEAN dialogue partner with Brunei as the ASEAN Chair. ASEAN is such an important institution and we are really keen to help strengthen it. We are grateful to Brunei for supporting our application to be a dialogue partner, as well as to all the other ASEAN countries as this was done as a consensus decision.
Brunei was also chosen to be our country coordinator. Each dialogue partner has a country coordinator which acts as their link point into ASEAN. We are also working with Brunei on our five-year plan on how to deepen our relationship with ASEAN.
There’s a lot more we can do by working with ASEAN and its member states. These include recovery from COVID, growing the trade relationship and tackling issues such as maritime security, cybersecurity and climate change.
The UK’s relationship with Southeast Asia is very important. Before COVID, our two-way trade amounted to something like GBP40 billion, and there is scope to grow that substantially.
Also, last year we published our Integrated International Review, which is basically our international strategy, outlining our commitment to the Indo-Pacific which Southeast Asia is also a part of.
