In a smog-shrouded Malaysian capital Mr Robin Cook, the British Foreign Secretary, will be trying today to sell a dynamic New Britain image to Asia and to polish the human rights credentials of the New Labour government.
In a speech setting out Britain's view of its role in Asia, Mr Cook will emphasise Britain's potential as a bridge into the region.
Mr Cook will emphasise the opportunities for Asian investors in a British government firmly committed to engagement in Europe.
Mr Cook is likely to get at least a polite hearing when he meets the Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad. It is barely three years since Dr Mahathir launched a damaging "buy British last" offensive after controversy surrounding British aid for the Pergau dam in northern Malaysia. It is barely a week since the dam was commissioned, and with no echo of those rows.
The message that relations have thawed came in a speech Dr Mahathir gave earlier this year extolling British business as the most comfortable partner for Malaysia. But there remains a yawning gap in approaches to issues such as human rights that Mr Cook will struggle to bridge.
After eight years of annual economic growth of more than 8 per cent, Dr Mahathir has a keen sense that it is time Asian views and values found more international recognition.
Mr Cook takes freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights "to be selfevident". Dr Mahathir believes the declaration was scripted by and for the rich and should be redrafted. In an interview published yesterday he stressed: "We never believe in applying pressure on people . . . If you apply sanctions you punish the poor for the sins of the government."
That gap in perceptions offers scope for conflict at the Commonwealth summit in Edinburgh in October, when Britain will push for Nigeria's continued suspension.
Mr Cook will run into perhaps greater sensitivity on human rights when he arrives in Indonesia later today. But Britain's new guidelines restricting arms sales should hardly pose a problem as Mr Cook has endorsed the sale of, among other items, Hawk jets.