BRITAIN is going to be “bold” and not “timid” on the world stage, Theresa May has insisted.
Speaking at the G20 summit in Hamburg, the Prime Minister brushed aside suggestions that the uncertainty caused by Brexit was hobbling the UK’s role in the world and she rejected the view of William Hague, the former foreign secretary, who claimed the country would lose influence on the global stage after leaving the EU.
She told the BBC: "What I see as I talk to leaders around the world is engaging with and working with the UK - new friends and old allies alike - as we leave the EU.
"There are no prizes for guessing that the election result did not come out as I hoped it would.
"There are two ways the government can react to that. We either be very timid and sit back or we can be bold and that is what we are going to be.
"We are going to bold because the UK is facing challenges that we need to address," declared Mrs May.
At the summit the PM will tell leaders that there must be no "safe spaces" for terrorist funding in the global financial system, pledging action to track small sums of money used to finance "lone wolf" attacks.
She explained that the continuing terror threat needed to be tackled "from every angle", including working will allies in the Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia, which has been accused of supporting extremist groups in the UK; claims it denies.
"What I am doing here at the G20 is raising the need for us to work collectively and internationally to deal with terrorist finance not just on the large sums of money that funding terrorism but also to find ways to work with financial services and banks to identify small-scale transactions that can sometimes lead to terrorist activity," said Mrs May.
She is due to have a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping of China today and one with President Donald Trump of America tomorrow.
The PM is expected to raise climate change with Mr Trump. She stressed that she hoped the President would listen to the G20's "collective message" on the issue.
"I was clear to President Trump how disappointed the UK was that the United States had decided to pull out of the Paris Agreement and also clear that I hope that they will be able to find a way to come back in to the Paris Agreement; that's important for us globally."
This afternoon in the set-piece event of the two-day summit, the American President is due to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for the first time. The meeting is set to last an hour.
Mr Trump met Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, today and the pair spent an hour talking about North Korea, the Middle East, the conflict in eastern Ukraine and G20 issues.
Tonight, the leaders and their spouses are set to attend a musical concert and a dinner.
Outside the secure area of the summit, clashes have taken between police and protesters in Hamburg. Police expect around 100,000 protesters to converge on the German city over the next 24 hours.
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