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DEFENCE

China will soon be military threat in Atlantic, says UK defence chief

London, UK. 29th Mar, 2022. chief of the defence staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin arrives at a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street London. Credit: Ian Davidson/Alamy Live News
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin warned that Beijing was “increasing substantially its nuclear arsenal”
ALAMY

China will soon threaten the West’s security in the Atlantic, the head of the UK’s armed forces has said, suggesting that a British aircraft carrier may need to be sent to East Asia regularly.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, said the melting of the polar ice caps would create a shipping route from China to Europe. Beijing could exploit the avenue to flex its military muscles, he said.

Radakin was delivering his annual lecture to the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi). He echoed recent warnings from the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ about the threat posed by China as he criticised Beijing for being a “tacit supporter” of Russia’s war in Ukraine. He suggested the Royal Navy could increase its Trident submarine fleet as he warned Beijing was “increasing substantially its nuclear arsenal”.

The Royal Navy has four Vanguard-class submarines carrying Trident nuclear weapons. They are to be replaced by four Dreadnought-class submarines early in the next decade.

Radakin said the UK had to get over its “mild embarrassment” about having nuclear weapons because the war in Ukraine proved the necessity of the Trident deterrent. He said the “totemic” Aukus deal signed with the US and Australia could allow the UK to increase its fleet and “grow our submarine numbers”.

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He said: “There is something very British in our approach to having the bomb — mild embarrassment. And yet perhaps one of the starkest lessons of the past year has been our extended nuclear deterrence. It has protected us and our allies, allowing us to resist coercion and continue to do what is right.”

Radakin, 57, was appointed to the highest position in the British military in November last year. At his first Rusi lecture last year, he warned that the West’s worse-case assessments of the build-up of Russian troops on the Ukraine border suggested President Putin was preparing for an invasion.

“If the headlines the following morning seemed alarmist at the time, they don’t now,” he reflected. Radakin said Russia was now losing the war despite firing “millions” of artillery rounds against a “modest military power”.

He said: “Russia faces a critical shortage of artillery munitions. This means that their ability to conduct successful offensive ground operations is rapidly diminishing. There is no mystery as to why this is the case. Putin planned for a 30-day war but the Russian guns have now been firing for almost 300 days.

“The cupboard is bare. Morally, conceptually and physically, Putin’s forces are running low.”

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Radakin said the war had made Russia “weaker but more vindictive”. He warned Europe about its overreliance on US military spending.

“Were the US to contemplate a more radical pivot to the Indo-Pacific it would cost Nato’s European nations more than $300 billion over ten years to match US current investment in our security,” he said.

Radakin gave reasons why the US may need to focus on containing the threat from China. He said global warming could help Beijing expand its military presence. The melting of the ice caps would mean “surely China’s military forces will start to reach into the Atlantic”, he added.

Reflecting on what may be included in the update to the integrated review next year, Radakin raised the prospect that one of the UK’s two aircraft carriers may be stationed more permanently in East Asia after HMS Queen Elizabeth led a carrier strike group through the South China Sea last year.

“The alternative to thinking big, and to thinking on a global scale, is that we become an introspective, cautious nation, that looks the other way,” he said. “But we’ve seen what happens when countries look away. Authoritarians are emboldened. Rules get broken, economic turmoil and global insecurity follow.”

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