6. Will the First Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's international policy? OAQ51306

The focus of our international work is clear: to create a more prosperous and sustainable Wales through increased export and investment while increasing Wales’s influence and international recognition.

I thank the First Minister for that answer. He is aware of my view, of course, that there needs to be a new, comprehensive international policy for Wales now that encompasses everything from trade to international development. I believe that there are many lessons we can learn from other sub-state nations. I know he's reluctant to do so at the moment, because of the ongoing uncertainty around our separation from the European Union, but doesn't he agree that, as a first step to a new, comprehensive international policy for Wales, we need to ascertain our country's global reputation? At the moment, one of the leading global brand industries for nations is the Anholt-GfK Nations Brand Index, and they measure the reputation of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the UK as three different entities. So, will the First Minister seek to have Wales included on that nations global brand index, so that we can have a first step, at least, to ascertaining our global reputation that could then inform a future international policy for our country?

Could I say, first of all, that we're not waiting to see what happens with Brexit in terms of developing, as he would describe it, international policy? One of the things we know we need to do is to increase our staff presence abroad, working with the UK Government to ensure that we can work with them, but I know that we will need to increase our presence in different countries around the world. That work is ongoing, and I hope to be in a position to make an announcement about that in the very near future.

He mentions particularly the Anholt-GfK open nation brands index. We have taken part in that survey in the past. It's expensive. The question for us was, 'What does it deliver for us?' It wasn't clear what it delivered for what it cost us, but what I'll do is I'll write to the Member with more details, just to inform him of the reasoning behind that decision and in order for him to understand why that decision was taken and whether there's scope to look at rejoining the index at some point in the future.

First Minister, I just heard your previous response. Do you agree with me that we ought to be looking at appointing trade envoys to boost exports to countries outside of the EU? That will, of course, raise Wales's commercial presence and international profile.

Well, we'll have to trade with any country we can around the world, within reason. But the reality is that most of our export market is the European single market. That can't be replaced overnight. We can't start, for example, suddenly to export dairy produce to the US because of the issues that exist there, nor should we try and ignore our biggest market, which is on our doorstep. That doesn't mean, of course, that we are not proactive in developing markets elsewhere. The middle east is one example. The very fact that, working with the airport, we've established a link to Doha from next year; the fact that we have been working to gain trade, for example, in middle eastern countries. We have, for example, a situation where Welsh lamb is the market leader in the United Arab Emirates, something that I and, indeed, the Presiding Officer worked for in order for that to happen. So, it's not the case that we only focus on Europe, but Europe is our most important market by far, and it's not realistic to think that it can be replaced with anything else, particularly in the short term.