As the former British Ambassador to the UAE, I know Brexit will fail if we don't change our attitude toward the Middle East

Repeating the American line with a British accent (which was Blair’s particular skill) no longer impresses anybody, especially with President Trump in the White House. The Emiratis could be key to our financial success, but only if Boris Johnson pulls his socks up

'This Government is now bumbling around trying to find its way out of the EU, and it needs to stop ignoring the UAE' (AFP)

Now that the UK is blundering around trying to find its way out of the EU, it is perhaps too much to ask that Britain should devote more time to talking to old friends in the Gulf region. It certainly seems that Britain is so wrapped up in the Brexit morass that most other parts of the world are being neglected.

The Brexit game must be exhilarating for those immediately involved, in terms of keeping the Tory Party together and advancing politicians’ careers. Sadly, if you take a pace back, it looks insane to put personal ambition and party politics ahead of the future of the country, particularly when playing a weak hand without a clear strategy, as seems to be the case in the Brexit negotiations.

Boris Johnson, the British Foreign Secretary, who is given to making statements about Britain being a great player and a positive force on the global stage, seems in practice to be undermining Britain’s strengths as a global player. Long is the list of international problems where Britain seems to have lost its voice, among them the Middle East and the Gulf.

The Foreign Secretary did pay a visit to the Gulf at the start of July, in an attempt to assist Kuwait’s mediation efforts in the dispute with Qatar. His visit was hardly reported in the region and, from what I hear in Abu Dhabi, he did not have anything helpful to say. Recent French, US and indeed Algerian attempts to make progress were taken much more seriously in the region.

There is, I believe, something more serious affecting Britain, going well beyond the present obsession with Brexit. It started 20 years ago in the early Blair years, when the Middle East was downgraded a few notches, and Ministers lost the easy relationship which Britain had enjoyed with the Gulf States.

Ministers have, in my view, had progressively less to say to Gulf leaders in this century, except to ask them to buy more British goods and services. This is an important element in the relationship, and brings large numbers for example of Emirati and British people into contact. It is however a bit cheap to go on about commerce if there is no overarching political relationship to guide it, no willingness to take the Gulf States seriously.

Britain’s default foreign policy position in the Middle East, starting from the Blair era, has been to follow the American line. Emiratis and others have given up expecting the British to take an independent view, based on their long involvement in the Gulf Region.

I remember, when I was the British Ambassador in Abu Dhabi in the late 1990s, being asked by Emirati friends what the British view on a particular issue was. Please tell us, they would say, what the British position really is: we know what the Americans think. Repeating the American line with a British accent (which was Blair’s particular skill) no longer impresses anybody, especially with President Trump in the White House.

The UAE is a vital player in the Gulf region. It has grown into the second-largest of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and the second-largest Arab economy. It has equipped its armed forces with advanced weaponry, with the clear aim of protecting its national interests and packing a muscular punch where it believes that it can make a difference.

The UAE’s immediate sphere of interest is surrounded by strategic hotspots, like the passage through the Red Sea and the Bab El Mandeb, the Gulf itself and the Straits of Hormuz. The UAE has to balance Iran, the complexities of the collapsed states of Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya, and to maintain its support for Egypt. It is a small state but one determined not to be pushed around. It has naturally drawn closer to Riyadh in their joint efforts to tackle regional crises.

If the UAE can influence Saudi thinking, it greatly extends Emirati diplomatic and military power. At the same time, the UAE remains the most open and dynamic of all the GCC States and is a natural hub for foreign companies operating in the Gulf. The Emiratis see themselves rightly as leaders in their rapidly evolving region: they are, to many Arabs, a fine example of what Arab states could, with the right leadership, become.

Britain is still a member of the Security Council. It is a nuclear power and, like France, spends heavily on defence. It possesses first-class intelligence services and retains the trappings of a major power.

I see little evidence, however, that the UK is playing any useful role in the Gulf, by – for example – keeping close to the UAE and coordinating military and diplomatic activity with the Emiratis. If Britain is to be any kind of player on the global stage, then it should take its Gulf friends more seriously.