Who are ‘Difficult four’ countries as per ‘Global Britain, Global Broker report’?

Recently, the report named “Global Britain, Global Broker” was published by the Chatham House or the Royal Institute of International Affairs. The report proposes a blueprint for foreign policy of the United Kingdome (UK) after Brexit. The report has classified India as one of the “difficult four” countries besides China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

 “Global Britain, Global Broker” Report

• As per the report, the fragmented domestic politics in India is very complex. This complexity makes it difficult to open trade and foreign investment.
• Concerns over pursuance of India in extreme right-winged policies have also been raised in the report.
• The report highlights that the Indian politics is entering into the ethnonationality phase. The Ethnonationality phase means the form of nationalism where nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity.
• As per the report, the D10 coalition might end up as D9. This might damage the India – UK relations.
• This report also criticizes India for its diplomatic behavior. It highlights that, India did not join the group of countries that criticized China at the United Nations General Assembly in the year 2019.

Why India is being criticized?

• At the United Nations General Assembly in 2019, the UN Members had criticized China for its human rights violations in Xinjiang while India maintained its silence over the issue.
• Further, India did not speak over the National Security Law in Hong Kong.

What does Difficult Four countries designation mean?

India has been grouped as one of the Difficult Four countries by the UK. By doing so, UK is counting India among its rivals or awkward counterparts as it pursued the global goals.

D10 group of countries

This grouping was proposed by Britain. The group include all the G7 countries apart from India, Australia and South Korea. The group was proposed with the aim of creating alternative suppliers of 5G equipment and other technologies so that dependency on China is reduced.

G7 countries

The G7 countries include the UK, the US, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Canada.