Rishi Sunak has admitted Britain’s reputation “took a bit of a hit” during the leadership chaos of recent months.
On a day when he came face-to-face with Russia for the first time, the prime minister said he wanted to play a leading role in solving key global issues while softening his language on China.
Sunak was seen glaring at Sergey Lavrov at the opening session of the G20 summit in Bali, where he sat directly across from the Russian foreign minister.
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At the event, where he hopes to speak with President Xi, Sunak called China a “systemic challenge to our values” but stopped short of the harsher language favored by his predecessor.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith urged him to “do a U-turn”.