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.
Do we think POW will go through Taiwan straights or too incendiary?
Not a chance.
Well they best fit the F-35’s with JSM, even if it means carrying them externally.
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.
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The distinct lack of any real response in your comment is entirely exemplary of the systemic sleep-walking found within this community.
Systemic sleep walking within this community………..
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.
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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!!!
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.
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?
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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.
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.
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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.
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The defence Secretary has gotten carry away with is words after to much Australia wine 🍷
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.
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.