Britain tilts toward Indo-Pacific with ship deployment
The Indo-Pacific tilt, announced in Britain’s 2021 Integrated Review of Foreign Policy, Security, Defence and Development, is driven by the UK’s strong cultural, historic, and economic ties to the region. We benefit from an extremely strong network of diplomatic missions from Kolkata to Canberra, membership of the Five Power Defence Arrangements and more recently the granting of dialogue partner status from ASEAN, the first time this was granted in 25 years.
Our close ties range from diplomacy to defence. Following the Carrier Strike Group deployment, centred on the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, which sailed from Britain to Japan, the Royal Navy also sent the offshore patrol vessels HMS Spey and HMS Tamar to the Indo-Pacific, for a five-year mission to work with, and learn from, our key allies and partners in the region.
These ships benefit from the inclusion of the latest green technologies. Like all the Batch 2 Offshore Patrol Vessels, HMS Tamar and Spey include catalytic converters that reduce nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide emissions by up to 97 per cent. They mark a generational leap in terms of their reduced environmental impact.
These ships are on a very different scale to the carrier but, like HMS Queen Elizabeth, they are highly capable platforms. What they offer is the ability to patrol exclusive economic zones, provide training for defence, customs, border protection and law enforcement agencies, and monitor fishing grounds for illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing.
Climate change, maritime resource protection and disruption of maritime crime routes are interests we share. I was delighted to be in Sydney last month to discuss these topics at the Royal Australian Navy’s Sea Power Conference, hosted by Admiral Mike Noonan. During my time in Australia, and alongside Vicki Treadell, the British High Commissioner, I explored our interests with our closest partners, and our desire to boost peace, security and prosperity.
The recent announcement of AUKUS, this bold new security partnership, of course drew attention, with the nuclear technology-sharing aspect making headlines. But the agreement is much wider than this. It represents a natural progression for three nations that have a history of working extremely closely together, and already share membership of the Five Eyes community with Canada and New Zealand. But it is also profound: only the second time that our American cousins have agreed to share nuclear technology in the seven decades they have operated nuclear submarines.
I am immensely positive about the level of international co-operation we are seeing. In a world of ever-increasing complexity, we need this level of collaboration to deal with the challenges we face. Strong alliances between allies who share outlooks, interests and values can only be of mutual benefit and I am proud that the sailors and marines of the Royal Navy will play their part in further developing our peace and security relationship.
Admiral Sir Ben Key is Britain’s First Sea Lord.
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In coming days, one of the Royal Navy’s newest and greenest ships will return to Darwin. HMS Tamar’s deployment highlights Britain’s deep interest and renewed presence in the Indo-Pacific. Building on the visit of the Astute-class nuclear submarine that called into Perth last year, Tamar’s arrival is a visible sign of Britain’s tilt to the Indo-Pacific, and a return to waters we once knew well and with which we are once again becoming familiar.