Green Diplomacy and the UK's ASEAN Opportunity

 

While Britain debates outdated NHS systems — including the stubborn persistence of the fax machine let alone Assisted Dying — Southeast Asia is racing ahead with environmental innovation, digital health pilots, and cross-border climate resilience. 

It’s time the UK connected its domestic reforms with its Indo-Pacific aspirations.

As someone who has lived and worked in Thailand and Cambodia, I see first hand the paradox: we can fund satellite earth observation from space, yet still rely on faxed referrals between NHS trusts and overseas clinics. 

The disconnect is more than just admin inefficiency — it’s a missed opportunity for joined-up diplomacy, trade, and technology transfer.

Gurkhas, the Mekong, and Everest

The UK has a hidden diplomatic asset: its veteran Gurkha community, especially those in East Kent. Their environmental leadership — from community clean-ups to the inspiring Everest ascent by Hari Budha Magar — is a perfect symbol of the UK’s people-to-people links with Asia.

And imagine deploying UK-made river booms, drones, and AI sensor systems across ASEAN waterways to tackle plastic pollution — in the Mekong, Tonlé Sap, Chao Phraya. These aren’t just development wins — they’re climate diplomacy with tangible visibility.

NHS Reform as Soft Power

Here at home, modernising NHS communication tools — phasing out faxes, digitising referrals — shouldn’t just be about efficiency. It should be framed as part of our foreign policy toolkit. Digital infrastructure, when shared through ethical partnerships, becomes a form of global health diplomacy.

From CPTPP to CARA

The UK’s entry into the CPTPP and FCDO £274M flagship CARA programme (Climate Action for a Resilient Asia) gives us real strategic options. But policy needs coherence. Why not:

  • Link NHS innovation funds with ASEAN digital health pilots?

  • Back veteran-led climate interventions like Everest clean-ups or river monitoring?

  • Embed Cambodia partnerships in CARA’s climate resilience strategy with skools and universities? Laos for example has only 8 main universities, hardly a complex management issue?

The bridge between Dover and say Da Nang isn’t infrastructure — it’s imagination.

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