Britain’s Defence Secretary has stated that the UK is prepared to fight in the Indo-Pacific if necessary, in one of the clearest signals yet of UK alignment with key allies in the region over tensions involving Taiwan.

According to The Telegraph, John Healey made the remarks while aboard HMS Prince of Wales in Darwin, Australia, as the Royal Navy carrier strike group leads the UK’s contribution to Exercise Talisman Sabre 25.

“If we have to fight, as we have done in the past, Australia and the UK are nations that will fight together. We exercise together, and by exercising together and being more ready to fight, we deter better together,” Healey was quoted as saying.

While framed in general terms, the comments are among the strongest public statements from a UK minister on potential future conflict involving Taiwan.

The Telegraph notes that the Royal Navy’s presence in the Pacific is part of a wider effort to deter coercive activity by China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan. Xi Jinping has not ruled out the use of force to reunify the island with the mainland.

The UK Carrier Strike Group, led by HMS Prince of Wales, has sailed from Singapore to northern Australia and will continue on to Japan, likely operating near Taiwan. Exercise Talisman Sabre involves 35,000 personnel from 19 nations, including close integration between British, American, Japanese and Australian forces. The UK’s participation includes F-35B stealth fighters, Royal Marines from 42 Commando, and long-range RAF air support.

While the UK has stopped short of adopting the United States’ policy of “strategic ambiguity,” Healey’s remarks underscore the extent to which Britain is reinforcing its Indo-Pacific commitments under the Integrated Review and AUKUS frameworks. The UK currently maintains two permanently forward-deployed offshore patrol vessels in the region and has previously conducted freedom of navigation operations through contested waters.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

122 COMMENTS

  2. Good to know that the time-honoured sense of delusion is still strong in the MoD. The UK is in no way ready for a war in the Pacific. China would smoke our lone CSG, and even with the Americans, victory against a nation with stockpiles of thousands of anti-ship munitions, a vastly superior navy to ours, a rapidly expanding force of fighters, flying next-generation prototypes and the world’s most capable industrial base is far, far from assured.

    On the other hand, the UK has no current amphibious capability, a rapidly shrinking naval force, destroyers lacking the capability to defend against the very ballistic missiles that form the tip of China’s anti-ship spear, frigates ageing out far faster than they can be replaced, a comparatively tiny force of combat aircraft that are unable to threaten the PLAN, nuclear submarines that have formed an unfortunately close attachment to their jetties, and a crumbling auxiliary service. The 2030s can’t come soon enough.

    The fight for Taiwan, a necessary partner that should be protected, will nevertheless be bloody, economically catastrophic and extremely difficult. The sooner we stop deluding ourselves with an inadequate veil of global capability, the sooner we can work towards actually building that capability.

    • Do I dispute systemic sleep waking in this community? Yes for sure, in this “community” (we don’t live together) there are so many realists and people experienced in the various subject matters discussed that they are fully aware of the both strengths and weaknesses of the British Military and raise these concerns both on her often and with their local MPs on occasion! Next question?

      • But that sleep-walking is there. There’s a concerning rapidity with which certain people dismiss China and the threat it poses, alongside a more concerning inability to speak honestly about the issues faced by the armed forces.

        By community, I’m referring to defence in the UK as a whole. You don’t have to live together to be a community.

    • leh,
      Largely agree w/ your assessment of the current status of UK forces, w/ one significant caveat. RN has a single ace in the hole–a Vanguard class SSBN, carrying up to 40 warheads. In a no-holds-barred dust-up, Xi must contemplate up to 40 fewer cities, and perhaps as many as 80 fewer, if the RN could sortie a second SSBN. UK has announced an increase in warhead stockpile to 260, at some point it would be logical to assume SSBN loadout would proportionally increase. Further, SSN(A) will be equipped w/ VPM, and potentially SLCM-N, by SSN(A) IOC. SLCM-N, deployed across RN and USN SSN fleets will definitely complicate CRINK plans, and make geographical adventurism a much more sporting proposition.
      UK (and US) conventional forces should improve in capabilities from this point, but will not deter the ChiComs from attempting Eminent Domain annexations in the SCS

      • The reason I left out the nuclear force, which has its own significant issues, is that I’m struggling to see a scenario in which Britain would have an incentive to go nuclear over Taiwan.

    • We have delusions of grandeur in the UK (at least our politicians do). We are a heavily indebted nation, middle ranking nation on the slippery slope to penury with a substantial imported law and order issue that can’t even defend our own borders. We have police monitoring social media posts for signs of dissent from the general native population and we drag veterans through the courts in vexatious claims from foreign grifters. To think we can fight the workshop of the world with their advanced technology, vastly larger army and navy and vast economic resources is beyond me. How about we start defending ourselves against the invading army of boats and military age aggressive young men (and Taliban now apparently in our shores)…..I mean that is lower hanging fruit isn’t it? Moreover that would definitely make the UK much safer too and would help reduce some of the mountain of debt we have accumulated. Taiwan is over 13,000 nautical miles from the UK but those boats are just coming from France…which do you think is easier to deal with? Do you think with allies like France we need to add more enemies to the list such as China. Really stupid overblown puffed up nonsense from Labour….However, the Tories are no better with Kemi the lady with two B’s and a D at A-level…the D being mathematics and barely scraping through university clearing and working as a glorified bank teller before she met her more successful husband. These are the morons running our country now.

        • Dear George,

          The conservatives brought in the online safety act (OSA) that Labour is now exploiting to control the British people. This is how deep the rot in our system is now when free speech has gone from these lands. They are trying to force and control the narrative but the government has lost control of that narrative. When they brought in the dispersal policy all those leftie upper middle class started to worry about their own families now. Before it was just the native working class that saw immigration up close and centre now everyone is and they don’t see any flip sides…Labour will get absolutely trounced at the next election and they are trying to jerrymander things by lowering the voting age….You think you live in a democracy….we should all think again about that. I think of Kiplings poem…Norman and Saxon…..the Norman’s (upper class and upper middle class) and the Saxon’s (lower middle class and working class). The dividing line is between the gated community folks that are insulated from any negative effects of mass migration and those that have to live and breath the nightmare of mass migration. We have found out that the supposed economic benefits of migration are only for the rich and not the poor….as our national debt balloons to beyond 100%, the GPs and dentists are for everyone but the native British. We have found the “enrichment” is one way as our culture is disintegrating before our very eyes…We have found the future has been taken away for our families…when Labour and Tories said there would be sunny uplands…Our parliament is just smoke and mirrors and we are run by globalists for the benefit of globalists… It’s time we all started waking up to what is happening in our country… It’s not too late to fix these issues at the next general election….but when hovering over the tick box on the ballot paper that says Conservative or Labour….we need to look at other tick boxes on the ballot paper for our salvation from this never ending nightmare. The future is in everyone’s hands at the next general election and for me I can’t wait to vote this awful government out at the next general election….let’s hope they don’t jerrymander the process even further.

        • @ Supportive Bloke/Blone, they infest sites like this, lot’s of new ones turn up incognito to express genuine concerns rather than expose their normal identities.
          It’s the same on the “TVR” forum and the “Humour for the non appreciating humourless folk” site. (I particularly enjoy it on there).

          (It’s just a chat site for serious people to behave seriously).

    • The most sensible move would be to try and mitigate for any critical resources we would lose if Taiwan is invaded.

      The prime example would be integrated circuit manufacturing. The West needs to re-shore such critical industries ASAP

      • From a cynical perspective, that would absolutely be the best move. That said, were that to come to pass, I imagine Taiwan would be left out to dry very quickly.

        In a perfect world, we could both bring manufacturing home to the UK and support Taiwanese independence. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world, and I can’t see both happening at the same time.

    • Unless I’ve missed something I think the assumption that those words are a message of commitment to defending Taiwan is highly presumptuous. At best it’s a nebulous message to keep Trump happy that we are being good little elves to his Santa Claus without any actual commitment at all, and perhaps an attempt at a hint to China that the West is united so as to raise strategic questions in their minds (optimistic). But to me that last bit is aimed more at general support for Australia and the wider allied Nations in the area from India through the likes of Malaysia and Singapore to South Korea and Japan, but specifically Australia because that latter is becoming a much greater and growing power and vital defence entity to further links and cooperation and of course keep at least the duopoly of the AUKUS cooperation going forward with momentum and encourage widening military and economic agreements in light of US unreliability and indeed outright hostility. Fact is this is effectively support for Australia and expressing support (even if a little nebulous again but good when you have a task force there) and to encourage the US we are right there with them against China to keep Trump onside supporting Europe against Russia. A bit sick making but as a politician one has to bite one’s tongue and massage fragile egos for the sake of the greater good as much as I hate to say it. Just as in this case there is no actual commitment whatsoever. Geez even Trump seems unwilling to give any commitment to Taiwan as long as he can build golf resorts there and in China after any take over, while of course that doubt in itself pushes Taiwan to build chip fabs in the US.

      • You really need to get over the Trump derangement syndrome thing… It’s not flattering. Try to deal in the real world. This is serious business.

    • leh, this amazing Chinese Navy (and their marines) of which you speak has no combat experience in respect of manpower and equipment. They are not even a true bluewater navy, but on paper they look impressive. If we did contribute to a coalition of the willing, probably US-led, by offering a CSG, it might amount to 5-10% of the overall force structure. Any gaps or shortfalls in our capability would be covered by other nations navies, especially USN. Need we be quite so worried as you are? The same outlook would be the case of a land war in Europe in that our army’s weaknesses would be made up for by capabilities provided by allies.

      • They have no need to operate in a bluewater environment in a conflict surrounding Taiwan. It’s irrelevant in the given scenario – instead, the pressure to perform in a bluewater environment would entirely be on this ‘coalition of the willing’. I’d also add, there is no Western military with recent experience of peer-on-peer conflict.

        ‘On paper, they look impressive’. It’s an impressive force, on paper and in reality. A force that vastly outnumbers our own, and has a far more developed ballistic and cruise anti-ship capability that our own vessels are simply not configured, nor are they planned to be configured, to combat.

        The USN has its own major capability chasms, including shortfalls in interceptor manufacturing, a shortage in numbers peer-level stealth fighter aircraft, a mediocre surface anti-submarine platform and a seeming inability to manage a ship-building industry at scale. The USAF has a shortage of Patriot and THAAD interceptors to protect its bases in the region against the Chinese ballistic threat, a lack of modern AEW&C platforms and missiles that today sit firmly behind the curve. The RN can currently fill precisely none of these gaps with any meaningful effect. The most important and capable asset the RN could bring to a conflict in the Indo-Pacific would most likely be the A-class SSNs. Those same boats however are currently struggling to get to sea in significant and lasting numbers.

        I’m not advocating for a British withdrawal from the Indo-Pacific. It’s a critical region and requires more force investment to combat an authoritarian and expansionist China. That said, currently, the UK is not equipped to either stand on its own, or contribute significantly to a ‘coalition of the willing’ (in itself a vague and unlikely concept). A conflict with Russia would be very different to a conflict with China. One is a crippled, elderly military, no longer a technological power-house. The other is the world’s workshop, its foremost industrial power and the global frontrunner in various defence technologies. The West isn’t ready for that fight, by our admission. China is a major threat, and should absolutely be considered such.

  3. Great Britain can fight in Ukraine, Taiwan, all over the world, blah blah blah, but not a single firm order for new aircrafts, tanks, escorts, or amphibious vessels. I don’t know if they’re joking or actually believe their nonsense. What are they going to fight with, stones? Incredible.

    • I think they still believe the great unwashed actually listen to their delusional comments. It would be funny if it wasn’t such a serious situation.

    • Grandstanding.
      HMG are unable to do otherwise as our UNSC P5 status compels them.
      Meanwhile, the forces continue to shrink.

      • Quite mate, we would probably contribute a couple of Astute SSN’s, in reality, the only meaningful contribution we could make that would be capable of inflicting huge damage to the Chinese fleet.

        In reality we of course sit the match one out on the sidelines with the other wheezy boys….

        • In a war situation 2-3 Astutes could be deployed as well as the SSBN these rather alter the general balance.

          Our frigate force is now so reduced and will be until the mid 2030’s that all we can really do is to bottle up the Bear – with the Nordic allies to keep the Atlantic safe.

          I don’t think that an RN amphibious force is relevant to Taiwan but other assets are that we no longer have in the quantity we had 20 years ago.

          Hopefully Daring will make an appearance soon so our AAW fleet will, at least, look sensible for escorting carriers etc.

          • nuclear would be irrelevant in SCS. There is no scenario except the UK homeland being threatened with WMD that result in the UK going nuclear.

          • “Daring” ha, I’d forgotten about her. Hopefully someone can find a decent chainsaw to clear all the roots.

          • The UK cannot come close to deploying two or three astutes Even in UK Waters… Let alone on the other side of the world.

      • I think we have a slightly more dangerous adversary these days compared to China which is the huge masses of military age religious fundamentalists that are coming over the channel in boat loads from our supposed ally France (every year we import more military age men than we have in our own standing army). Which do you think is easier to deal with:

        (a) Battalions of military age men intent on using our finite resources and with some committing serious crimes against the native population (especially children and women). Coming directly from France without our own ally lifting a finger to prevent it (even with the £500 million we give them each year). Moreover, with our border force acting as a ferry service for them. However, super injunctions are also a useful cover for importing further significant numbers of military age men under the very noses of the British population. Makes you wonder what other super injunctions are out there so the MPs can prevent us knowing the truth. Ironic that the number of Afghans that supposedly helped us (they were helping themselves by the way and their own nation and we owe them nothing) was larger than the UK forces that were deployed…you figure that one out as I can’t…someone with 20 immediate family members…..including his favourite pet goat.

        (b) An advanced first world nation which is the workshop of the world, has advanced 5th generation fighters, an advanced navy and one of the world’s largest and best equipped armies in the world with Taiwan being over 13,000 nautical miles from the UK.

        Maybe we should ask our delusional politicians….Oh we can’t as they are too busy setting up a crime unit to monitor social media posts from the native population and taking veterans through the courts whilst they are elderly via vexatious claims from foreign grifters and foreign born grifter lawyers…and then having the police escort extreme left wing anarchists to disrupt lawful protests against this madness. This country is a joke these days….roll on the next election when we can get rid of these morons from the house of parliament… I think these issues are more pressing that a supposed threat from China…However, it should be a good distraction from the easily fooled in the UK.

        • As you know, I agree Andrew.
          It is what it is.
          Any meaningful debate on that is immediately shot down by the leftists here, so I’m not going there.
          On defence, I will talk all day.

          • Daniele, we all need to speak loudly about things that happen. The leftie globalists (some of which maybe state funded actors) are just the noise to distract us…They lack intellect, they lack arguments and they lack common sense but they do have a common purpose (Marxism for the masses). Moreover, they have an agenda as they are their to agitate and distract from the real issues the UK is facing (as we have recently seen on the news). Much like these never ending wars that pop up and our politicians dive into like the middle east and now Taiwan. I can understand the reticence to speak out and that is what things like the online safety act (OSA) are designed to do…prevent free speech. They bring these bills in for one purpose and that is to shut down free speech. We all know what Benjamin Franklin said about liberty and security…how wise our forefathers were that is all I will say. I have read widely including people like Jeremy Bentham and Edmund Burke…those voices echo through the ages and provide wise words for us in these troubled times. We need people like you to never stop stating what you think or else we all lose our freedom longer term. The last thing I will say is what is the purpose of the military in the UK if we don’t have peace and prosperity at home….we need to fix our own homes before venturing out to fix countries overseas.

        • I can never understand the people who openly support unregulated migration (i.e “everybody is welcome” nobody is illegal” …etc).

          They overlook the facts that we are a small island with a shortage of affordable housing, and shrinking public services and utilities.

    • Micki, no new orders? There are newish orders in for CR3 tanks, T26, T31. Orders should soon go in for MRSS, more F-35s, RCH-155.

      • Graham – These are orders replacing cut, donated or existing assets. None of those are incremental capabilities that reflect the new world we face. Have our FJ or maritime forces grown? no. Has the army size increased? no.

  4. If we can’t be bothered to help Ukraine and put boots on the ground and jets over, then we sure as hell are NOT going to help Taiwan!!!

  5. Too much read into the kind of statement that a defence secretary feels he has to make.
    I would be happy if we could regenerate a fleet capable of carrying out critical tasks nearer home For the next few years we won’t have that.

    • I was quite surprised to hear Mr Healey speak the way he did, I was expecting something a bit more understated. In contrast Mr Lammy didn’t seem to say that much in an earlier AUKMIN press conference. Maybe less is best. Not sure where’s next for the CSG in the region but I don’t think anyone wants another conflict kicking off in SE Asia with Ukraine and Gaza-Iran still live.

    • I agree people are reading way too much into this for rage bait purposes. He was asked what the UK is doing to support China. And he simply pointed out that these exercises make our cooperation with allies more robust, and therefore increases any deterrence. But ultimately the UK position is diplomacy.

      Was are you expecting him to say as defence secretary? We’re actually never going to support Taiwan and this deployment was a waste of money??

  6. just my opinion .but. it suggests according labour , their is nothing wrong, and we are all right????
    everything works perfectly, and the military is 100% ready. Clearly. then. our defence minister is the expert in these matters, and we can sleep in peace, knowing that we are all safe,?????

    then we wake up , and realise it was all a funny dream…or was it ????
    just my humble opinion, and yours is?

  7. If Healey wants to fight for Taiwan let him go and do it. We are not capable and sadly I don’t think we ever will be. More likely the resiliance route promised by Starmer. Pot holes and rural Broadband ? Perhaps I’m being a bit ambitious though.

  8. Dangerously delusional.

    Our best effort is in fact a CSG that gets to the Indo-Pacific every 4-5 years with 18 jets, terrible AEW, no stores ship, no SSN, a single AD destroyer and a clapped out frigate.

    Anything we could scrape together would last 5 minutes with no readily available replacement.

  9. Royal Navy is part of a wider effort with other countries to deter coercive activity by china. Defence minister talking to china but also possibly more to our side, if we exercise in these waters we have to be ready.

  11. if the US can’t properly support Ukraine vs Russia why should the UK (or Europe) back the US in the Pacific just so it can maintain its number 1 status?
    at least wait a couple of years until both sides destroy each other,whilemselling weapons to the US (cash and carry ofc) and then come in at the end to save the day. payback is a bitch.

    • The UK wouldn’t necessarily be fighting in the Pacific anyway. China has assests in thr Indian Ocean, as.do we. That aside,.this is why our strategy of bleeding Russia dry slowly in Ukraine is wrong. Ukraine needs everything we can give them so that they can inflict a defeat on Russia in a timely manner. The longer Ukr/Russ continues the more likely it is that it will overlap with a Chinese act in the Western Pacific.

  12. Total word spaghetti, did not actually come out with anything coherent and sensible. Just more chuff with limited hardware and will to back it up.

  13. I don’t really like this reporting. What do you expect him to say when asked what the carrier group is doing to help Taiwan? He even clarified that he was talking generally that these exercises are to deter and develop. And that our strength comes from our allies (US etc)

    It’s frustrating to see all these comments calling the government delusional over such a boiler plate answer.

    >Asked by the Telegraph about what the UK is doing to help countries like Taiwan to prepare for potential escalation from China, Mr Healey said: “If we have to fight, as we have done in the past, Australia and the UK are nations that will fight together. We exercise together and by exercising together and being more ready to fight, we deter better together.”

    > Mr Healey, however, said he was speaking in “general terms”, and said the UK would prefer to see any disputes in the Indo-Pacific resolved “peacefully” and “diplomatically”.
    He added: “We secure peace through strength, and our strength comes from our allies.”

  14. Sorry this was a bit of click bait headline copied directly from the telegraph. The defence secretary most definitely did not come out and say the UK would defend Taiwan. He was answering a question in from the telegraph in general terms about how the UK would fight with Australia to defend western values in the pacific… not specifically anything about an alliance with Taiwan. The UK policy on Taiwan has not changed, in that the UK has no fixed policy.. as for fighting with Australia to defend Taiwan, Australia has made it pretty clear Taiwan is not a red line it would willingly go to war over.

    • Meanwhile the USA has, maybe, made Taiwan a red line it would willingly go to war over. And un-willingly would it sell it’s critical defence assets to allies un-willingly stand-by it’s stance on Taiwan.
      So Australia better start building its own subs to defend itself then, not write for AUKUS?

      • To be fair allies often have different views on areas they will and will not go to war over.. no one was going to go to war with Argentina over its invasion of part of Britain.. no one was going to support the US in its invasion of random islands.

        In regards to any Sino US war there is actually a very specific red line which would trigger a response from the UK and the rest of NATO and that is China attacking the continent US or US forces in its own waters attached to the continental US.. as that is the western boarder of NATO. Essentially it means for China to actually meaningfully fight a war with the US it’s going to end up triggering article 5 of NATO… as it will need to cause the US pain to force it to the table.

  15. Delusional. China has the worlds largest navy and will run circles around the woefully inadequate RN and RAN.

  16. Waking up to this article makes me proud to be British, what other Country has the staggering ability to send 4 ships to the other side of the World and a defence department confidently anouncing our readiness to engage in a fight against 1.4000,000 peasants with pitchforks and Junks to help defend Taiwan.

    It’s not like if they have any armed forces at all.

    And those two forward deployed River’s are just so freeking scary.

    Leh, It’s OK to vent on here, most of us enjoy a good rant.

  17. I have a great Idea, why don’t we all get together and agree a deal to sell Taiwan to China for 3 Trilion “Dollas” over the next 99 years (without asking the Taiwanese) The money can come out of the Defence budget each year and think just how much it would save rather than going to war.

    • Where did he say ‘fight China’? It really isn’t what he was talking about it’s a matter of showing solidarity with Australia in particular and others in a more nuanced way. Our job is to protect the western border of the axis of mega evil and if the US is in a spat with China then that is all the more important. Meanwhile massaging faintly Trumps ego by showing solidarity doesn’t hurt in a matter like this but in a shooting war we won’t be there in anything but covering Australia and other flanks.

      We can’t afford having the US target us with ‘friendly fire’ in anything like a conflict again.

  20. Certainly with NATO allies it’s doable. However the question arises, why? When the body bags start coming back, many people will start asking why we are fighting over an island that many consider to be an internal Chinese matter. True or not. As for Australia, didn’t they leave us holding the can in 1941 at Tobruk? Not that I hold a grudge.🤣

    • It’s not a NATO fight so forget all those allies, the majority will have more sense than to piss away their resources whilst they have a threat on their own doorsteps.

      • Yes it would unfortunately end up a NATO fight.. NATO has a western boarder and that is the US pacific coastal waters.. in any US sino war China would undertake offensive actions against the US, the moment it did that article five would trigger.

    • Oh, and what did we do to them at Gallipoli – not that I could hold a grudge… And seem to remember that Darwin got the good news on more than one occasion because their pilots were off defending the UK and their soldiers were being led into captivity at Singapore…

      British Generalship of ANZAC forces has normally been appalling and we’ve let them down too many times, no wonder they align with the septics

      • Someone is triggered. It was a joke. However if you want to get into it, I’m happy too. Gallipoli was indeed dire. However 21k British troops died there next to 9K Australians plus a whole ton of others. So nothing to do with just ANZAC forces, it wasn’t even a British only operation. Ask the French. Singapore was indeed another mess. Where 40k British troops were captured alongside 30k Indians and 15k Australians. Again not just ANZAC forces. As for Darwin, 250 people died in 64 bombings. In London over 30k died in that city alone in over 700 bombings. As for being let down, frankly that’s war for you.

        • Your powers of humour are best left in the shower, and no one is triggered.

          British Generals spaffing away British soldiers is not new; indeed, one might take the view that PIRA wasted resources on shooting blokes on the NI streets – which the Braid treated as a training exercise – instead of bombing the foxtrot out of the City of London which brought the pollies to the negotiating table.

          Graham Moore, being REME might fill us in on the facts re Fatal RTAs and the number killed in NI

          Cheers. Easy.

  21. I think they need to look at procuring JSM’s for our F-35’s if that’s the case, even if it means carrying them externally. They currently lack any anti-ship missile, which when going up against the Chinese with the world’s largest Navy its a very important capability to have.

  22. somehow i just can’t see british people fighting for labour, and it won’t matter how much they conscript or train them, there will be mass desertions once the dying starts

    and i suspect that will be true of virtually all of western europe, where the elites have aligned with immigrats who have no stake in the country while alienating the native coirizen’s

    • Why because histrorically it was owned by China? Doesnt that mean India Australia Canada and the US are currently owned by the UK??

      • In the view of both the governments, people’s republic of China and the republic of China Taiwan is part of China, the dispute is not “is Taiwan independence or part of China” it’s “ who is the legitimate government of China”…people often forget that the ROC Claim to be the legitimate government of all of China not just Taiwan, just as the PRC claim to be the legitimate government of all of China including Taiwan.

        It’s why china always claims ( and really rightly so) that the dispute between the ROC and PRC is an internal matter and anyone sticking their noses in Taiwan is infact sticking their nose into china is actually correct.. we cannot pretend otherwise. We need to be honest with ourselves if we did go to war to protect china we are infact choosing sides in a civil war.. nothing more nothing less.. Because of you gave the ROC the power and ability it would overthrow the PRC tomorrow.

        Now don’t get me wrong I know what the PRC are, but we cannot hide behind some moral we are better..we would be going to war for our own geopolitical and geostrategic needs, because we favour one side in a civil war nothing more nothing less.

  25. Yeah that would be smart. Gamble with our tiny military which cannot cope with any losses whatsoever. Leaving us with practically nothing left to defend our own corner of the globe. Either pay for a military that live up to your ambitions or shut up!

  27. I don’t think people are very clear exactly what our exposure is in regards to the pacific and really what HMG was saying.

    What was said was HMG will do everything in its power to maintain peace and stability in the pacific and noted that the UK and Australia have a history of fighting together in shared endeavours.. that’s it no promises or alliances.

    But we have essentially an entanglement that would after a time likely mean the UK suffered contagion and would end up at war if China invaded Taiwan.. essentially Taiwan is the single most contagious trigger point outside of a NATO nation suffering an attack.

    This is because the US has entangled itself in Taiwan and promised to defend it and the US is part of NATO. This is fundamentally important because the western boarder of NATO is the US northern American pacific EEZ . So for China to take Taiwan it needs to neutralise US power in the western pacific, to do that it needs to fight a war with the US and bring the US to the peace table. If China attacks the US in that region then it will trigger article 5 and china will need to do that if it’s going to force the US to an end state of a US Sino war ( China will need to hurt the US) .

  28. With Mr Healey & Lammy here in Australia i wonder if they look any opportunity at the AUKMIN to re-spruik the A140 for the Australian flight frigate requirement to Mr Marles? And to NZ too? Especially if the decision is still a bit up in the air? Find a way to get it built? And maybe a few more for Indonesia…and best of all, for the RN too!?

  30. Some time ago a frigate of the Singapore Navy visited the UK. Oddly, the Singaporean defence secretary didn’t find the need to make a speech that Singapore would commit to the defence of Europe if needed. It would be logistically, militarily and diplomatically impossible for them.
    Yet, when a RN carrier group arrives in Australia, the defence secretary starts grandstanding about defence commitments. We don’t even have a frigate in the Gulf anymore, there are no amphibious capable ships currently active, SSN’s are tied up and the T23’s a shrinking force. There are existing air policing and Nato commitments with decreasing numbers of assets and personnel..
    They are STILL informing future decisions on drones, no word on NMH, no new Typhoon, Wedgetail, P8, IFV or artillery.

    But, yeah, Taiwan.

  31. Well, good on you Mr Healey, it is good to hear the resolve and have the words of support. Geelong agreement, ha! Go Cats!

  32. We do often forget the actual name of the county china.. Taiwan is not a nation, the nation is the Republic of China ( ROC) the ROC is in its own constitution the government of the whole of China.. it just happens to only control Taiwan at present because it got its arse handed to it in a civil war..

    Just as the Peoples republic of china ( PRC) claims to be the government of the whole of china including Taiwan while holding the mainland, so does the Republic of China claim to be the government of the whole of China, while holding Taiwan… neither government recognises their own nation as separate from the other..they both recognise themselves as the valid government of the whole of China and the other as an enemy in a civil war that never ended.

    Sometimes people do forget that. So if we go to war for Taiwan we are infact picking a side in a civil war. I am not making a moral judgment on that ( because I don’t believe morality has anything to do with geopolitics) just stating that facts as per the constitutions of the two governments who would be at war.

    Les

  33. Complete and utter ill informed Madness.
    Having just given away the Chagos why doesn’t he shut up. It a certainty the POW is now a sure target for any Missiles within range. Totally inadequate self defence either by its escorts or its measely OOD CIWs.

    -Will its valiant T23 30 yo frigate be able to stay in action for more than a few weeks in any sustained conflict.
    -No worthwhile AEW to engage ballistic missiles. No strike weapons or Meteor on F35Bs.
    -We are years behind with updating the Type 45’s; still on 2010 AAW tech.
    -Have NO Fleet Support Ship worthy of the name, except on loan from Norway.
    -No CAMs on the POW.
    -No SSN in support unless by kind permission of USN.
    -‘Who do you think you’re kidding Mr Starmer/ Mr Healey.’ music from Dads Army fades.
    -Shocking lack of coordination between FCO, MOD and Brain Cells between ears.
    -Perhaps its Force Z2. Best to Keep our ships tied up as a Fleet In Being.

  34. I wonder if Healey has noticed that the British Empire is no more? It is high time intellectual light-weights like Healey stopped taking the public for fools. WE need to build our capacity and very quickly to contribute meaningfully to defending Europe and the Uk from the obvious threat from the east. All this swanking about in the Pacific is really rather childish and eye-wateringly expensive posturing. Leave the Pacific to the Yanks as they will most likely leave Europe to us. Right anyone for a round of golf?

  35. One moment they want to let China build a super embassy for tapping into fibre optic communication cables and running spies, then they want to go to war over Taiwan. China’s hyper sonic missiles travel at speeds up to mach 5, no defence if they have some of the Russian KH47 M2 which are up to mach 10. How long would are ships last ?

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

By submitting this comment, you agree to the storage and handling of your data by this website in accordance with our Privacy Policy.