Over the past decades, William Hague believes British foreign policy has effectively frozen into three main 'blocs' - the US, the European Union and the Middle East.
Signalling a major change in Britain's foreign policy, foreign secretary William Hague today said UK wants to elevate its relationship with India and many ministers will be visiting the country to achieve this objective.
Unveiling "the distinctive British Foreign Policy", Hague told The Sunday Telegraph, "Britain must forge a distinctive new global identity which focuses as much on emerging nations such as India, Brazil, Chile and the Gulf states."
About forging special relationship with the emerging economic powerhouse like India, Hague said: "We're getting on with that straight away. Many ministers will be visiting India in the coming months to strongly signal to India that we want to elevate that entire relationship.
"This is the exciting part of foreign policy - this is why I say it is very important to look at the opportunities as well as the threats.
Over the past decades, Hague believes British foreign policy has effectively frozen into three main 'blocs' - the US, the European Union and the Middle East.
"Napoleon's maximum was that the side that stays within its fortifications is beaten - and in foreign policy, and in ensuring our future security, the country that is just reactive is in decline. So we are embarking on a major new phase, more systematically and strategically than has been done in this country for a very long time," he said.
"That is what I call a distinctive British foreign policy. We need a Foreign Office that has the confidence in itself and the rest of the government to lead that process.
The prime minister and I are determined to put right the problem of recent years that the Foreign Office has often not been able to play that role in foreign policy," he added.
Like the previous Labour Government, the new coalition government is also keen to build a special relationship with India.
Prime minister David Cameron, who heads the Conservative-Liberal Democrats coalition government, would visit India in July, official sources said today.
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