PM Sunak Set To Deliver Major Foreign Policy Speech ~1830GMT

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to deliver a speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet at the Guildhall in the City of London at around 1830GMT (1330ET, 1930CET). The annual speech to business leaders is usually used as an opportunity for prime ministers to set out foreign policy objectives or policies.

• Foreign policy is the area where we have the least indication of Sunak's broader aims given his rise to power came on the back of his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer. During his failed Conservative party leadership campaign this summer his focus remained largely on economic and domestic policy issues.
• Gov't briefing states that Sunak's speech will talk of the UK making, "...an evolutionary leap in our approach” regarding international relations, saying that this means, “standing up to our competitors, not with grand rhetoric but with robust pragmatism,” and declare that “freedom and openness have never been achieved by standing still.”
• Sunak's stance on relations with China will be closely watched, as will any comments on UK-India relations in the wake if his bilateral meeting with PM Narendra Modi at the G20 and efforts to get an FTA in place with New Delhi in early 2023.