Who initiated the UK Israel roadmap
Executive summary
The 2030 Roadmap for UK–Israel Bilateral Relations was negotiated and formalised by officials from both governments and signed in London on 21 March 2023 by the UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen [1] [2]. Its origins are described by official UK documents as the product of a strategic partnership begun with a Memorandum of Understanding in November 2021 and follow-up negotiations that picked up in 2022 [3] [1].
1. The formal initiators: ministers who signed and the official timeline
The public signatories who brought the Roadmap into being were UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who signed the 2030 Roadmap in London on 21 March 2023, a date repeatedly cited in government and industry reporting [1] [2] [3]. The UK government frames the Roadmap as a “living” document defining bilateral cooperation to 2030 and presenting commitments across trade, tech, security and other fields, language set out in the official GOV.UK publication that accompanies the Roadmap [3]. Reporting on the agreement also notes roughly £20 million in joint funding commitments for technology and innovation announced alongside the Roadmap, underscoring the economic and tech focus of the initiative [2] [1].
2. The antecedent that really initiated the process: the 2021 Memorandum of Understanding
The Roadmap did not spring up overnight; UK officials say it builds on a November 2021 Memorandum of Understanding that elevated UK–Israel ties to a strategic partnership and provided the political framework to craft a longer-term Roadmap [3] [2]. UK government material explicitly links the 2021 MoU to the Roadmap as “a signal of intent” for deeper cooperation and describes the Roadmap as the mechanism to operationalise that intention through high-level engagement through to 2030 [3].
3. Negotiations and policy drivers: who steered the drafting
Negotiations to translate the MoU into a Roadmap were carried forward by both governments’ foreign ministries, with reporting indicating formal negotiation activity in 2022 leading up to the 2023 signing [1] [3]. The British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office framed the document as consolidating pre-existing initiatives — such as the UK–Israel Tech Hub established in 2011 — and expanding cooperation in areas from cybersecurity to research and development, indicating institutional continuity within diplomatic and trade channels rather than a single external initiator [3].
4. Critics and alternative readings: who says the UK merely followed and why
Civil society critics, think-tanks and diplomatic opponents characterise the UK’s role differently, arguing the Roadmap is the culmination of long-term diplomatic engagement that effectively codifies alignment with Israeli policy rather than a UK-led initiative to rebalance relations, with groups like ForcesWatch portraying Britain as a passive supporter of US–Israel policy rather than an independent initiator [4]. The Palestine Mission to the UK and several NGOs framed the Roadmap as politically regressive and criticised the timing and optics of Netanyahu’s London visit immediately after the agreement, presenting the Roadmap as driven by political choices rather than purely bilateral benefits [5] [6].
5. Claims of pre-planning and hidden agendas: reporting that links the Roadmap to security and military cooperation
Investigative reporting has alleged the Roadmap anticipated or aligned with deeper military and security cooperation and suggested those elements were pre-planned, noting subsequent high-level meetings and military exchanges that critics connect to clauses in the Roadmap on defence and security cooperation [7]. Those accounts argue the agreement’s language on countering regional threats and on “natural allies” anticipates a tighter security stamp on bilateral ties, an interpretation the UK government’s public text frames in terms of mutual national-security interests [7] [3].
6. Bottom line — who initiated it in practice
Formally, the initiative was a bilateral government project culminating in a March 2023 signature by senior ministers from both states and explicitly built on a 2021 UK–Israel MoU and 2022 negotiations conducted by foreign ministry officials [1] [3]. However, responsibility for initiating the Roadmap can be read two ways: as a UK–Israel co-creation advanced by official diplomatic channels rooted in a prior MoU [3] [1], or — according to critics and investigative reporters — as the institutionalisation of longer-standing strategic and security alignments whose political impetus reflected broader geopolitical and domestic agendas beyond simple trade and tech cooperation [4] [7] [5].