UK slams ‘bullying’ Myanmar over embassy standoff
AFP, LONDON
Britain yesterday condemned “bullying” by the Burmese military after the Burmese ambassador to London was ousted in an extraordinary diplomatic coup after calling for the release of Burmese State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.
Diplomats loyal to the Burmese military authorities on Wednesday seized control of the embassy, leaving Burmese Ambassador to London Kyaw Zwar Minn locked out in the street.
The ambassador said that the defense attache had taken over the mission in “a kind of coup,” two months after the military seized power in Myanmar.
Burmese Ambassador to London Kyaw Zwar Minn stands outside the Burmese embassy in London yesterday after being locked out.
Britain focusing on Indo-Pacific region
PRIORITIES: A foreign policy shift would see the UK adopt a more activist approach to international issues, including climate change and democracy, to counter China’s rise
Bloomberg
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to redirect British foreign policy toward the Indo-Pacific region as he sets out a sweeping overhaul of the UK’s international priorities after Brexit.
The government was yesterday set to publish a 100-page blueprint for diplomacy and defense, which his officials billed as the most wide-ranging re-evaluation of the UK’s place in the world since the end of the Cold War.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe taken back to Iranian court, this time on ‘propaganda’ charges
AFP, TEHRAN
British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on Sunday appeared in a Tehran court to face new charges of “propaganda against the system,” a week after she finished serving a five-year sentence, her lawyer said.
The hearing has dashed the hopes of family and supporters for a swift release of the 42-year-old, in a case that has heightened diplomatic tensions between London and Tehran.
British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Dominic Raab said that it was “unacceptable that Iran has chosen to continue a second wholly arbitrary case.”
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