Cameron: Britain still a world power
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The cuts in the military spending have received heavy local media coverage, mostly negative.
The cuts have been heralded by commentators in Britain and overseas as a sign of a profound decline in Britain's military and diplomatic muscles, with a corresponding decline in its prestige and standing in the world community.
Trying to refute the allegations, Cameron said "I reject the thesis of decline," adding in his experience as prime minister he saw "a Britain at the center of all the big discussions. Producing the ideas. Consulted for our experience and respected for the skills we bring and our capacity to find solutions."
Cameron pointed to Britain's continued role "at the heart of the world's most powerful institutions from the G8 and the G20 to the Commonwealth, NATO and the UN Security Council."
He criticized the foreign policies of the previous Labor administration, which fought four wars in its 13-year stint in power, and said his government would change the course.
He said, "We have to be more strategic and hard-headed about how we go about advancing our national interests."
"We've made too many commitments without the resources to back them up. And we failed to think properly, across government, about what we were getting ourselves into and how we would see it through to success. So in Iraq there was no plan for winning the peace. In Afghanistan we failed to think through properly the implications of the decision to deploy into Helmand Province in the summer of 2006."
The major key to the continued holding of influence globally was on the back of a strong economy, he said, adding "the faster we can get our domestic house in order, the more substantial and credible our international impact is going to be."
He outlined three key areas of foreign policies, where his government would have a defined stance, differing from the previous government -- on trade, military policies, and foreign aid.
On trade, Cameron said Britain "must link our economy up with the fastest growing parts of the world, placing our commercial interest at the heart of our foreign policy." He cited trips to China, India, and Turkey as examples of seeking out bilateral trade improvements.
On military policies, he said decisions needed to be "more strategic and hard-headed" and to avoid the mistakes of the prolonged war in Afghanistan.
Cameron is keen to end the involvement in the Afghan war, and this summer his government announced that British combat troops would all be withdrawn by 2015.
On foreign aid, he said the aid budget, which was one of the few areas of government spending exempted from the cuts, would in future be focused "on building security and preventing conflict."
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