Tough talk raises eyebrows but aides insist: This is a new honesty

With his second foreign trip in two weeks, David Cameron looks more than a little like the "heir to Blair" when it comes to globetrotting.

But like his former Labour opponent, the Prime Minister is learning the hard way that foreign policy interests and trade relations can be uneasy bedfellows once you leave the comfort of the 747.

Today's remarks about Pakistan's links to terror raised eyebrows, just as his description of Gaza as a prison camp did yesterday.

Yet the team around Mr Cameron are unabashed about his attempts to redraw Britain's relations with its foreign partners.

Admitting that the UK is the "junior partner" in its special relationship with the US is seen as part of the "new honesty" sought by the Coalition Government. Ditto the PM's language about the need for "humility" in Britain's relations with India.

While no one can doubt Mr Cameron's love of tradition and heritage, with the budget deficit his main domestic priority, he wants to use hard-headed realpolitik to ultimately boost our national bottom line. If securing big trade deals means junking some of the orthodoxies, he won't lose any sleep.

Perhaps the most interesting change being executed under his premiership is a personal drive to target India.

It was to there that Mr Cameron turned for his first overseas trip as Opposition leader and it is to Delhi that he now looks for an injection of trade.

Labour focused far too much on China, aides point out, with the result that the potential of India, with all its historic links and shared language advantages, was overlooked.

With a billion people and an economy that is growing at 10 per cent a year, India is clearly a crucial market. Mr Cameron is personally targeting Delhi, while Nick Clegg is being left to take responsibility for Chinese relations.

The PM will be pleased to bag a couple of big contracts on this trip, assuming he negotiates the trickier pitfalls of diplomacy on the way. But the Treasury has one scary statistic that explains why there is a new urgency to the coalition's overseas trade efforts.

Britain currently sells more to Ireland than it does to India, China, Russia and Brazil combined.

Mr Cameron said today that "taking a realistic view of our position and place in the world" would ultimately benefit the UK. He now has to prove that his new approach is, literally, going to pay dividends.