The Ministry of Defence has reiterated its commitment to working with NATO allies to defend the High North and Arctic regions, as the alliance strengthens its military posture in response to increasing challenges.
Responding to a written question from Graeme Downie MP (Labour, Dunfermline and Dollar) about NATO’s efforts to protect the Arctic, Defence Minister Luke Pollard stated:
“As a leading European Ally in NATO, the UK will defend and support our High North and Arctic Allies should the need arise, and contest malign and destabilising behaviours and activity in the region which threatens our interests, the interests of our Allies, and the stability of the region.”
Pollard highlighted that NATO is accelerating its military transformation to bolster collective deterrence and defence, particularly in the High North. He explained:
“NATO is accelerating the Alliance’s ongoing military transformation to strengthen its collective deterrence and defence posture, with operational plans which cover every inch of Allied territory. This includes Allied territory in the High North.”
The UK’s role in the Arctic extends beyond NATO, with Pollard pointing to the country’s participation in various regional defence initiatives:
“We work with regional Allies and partners – including through NATO, the Joint Expeditionary Force, the Northern Group, and the Arctic Security Forces Roundtable – to align policy, activity and capability where possible and across all domains.”
The Arctic has emerged as a key focus for NATO, as the region’s strategic importance grows due to increased geopolitical competition and concerns about destabilising behaviour.
Reafirm commitment Blah, Blah, Blah ! The realitry is we gapped our ability to reinforce our High North / Artic Nato allies, have limited AEW / patrol capacity etc etc etc. Actual commitment does mean doing something and nope we will not do so.
If we were I’d start off with the extra 2 E-7 AEW we bought the radars for, 6 MQ-4C Triton to supplement the P8’s and build a few (4/5) proper Arctic / Antarctic OPV’s. Rather than yet another scoping project with a posh name and an Admiral in charge which takes 10 years and X millions £ I’d just buy a design off the shelf.
I’d do a reverse “licence to build trade” with Canada, only fair as we sold licence for 15 T26, and a hell of a lot of the equipment to go in them. Also they know a bit about cold weather and they are sat right along side us on “Comrade Tango’s” naughty step.
The RCN have the PC-5 spec Harry DeWolf design and its pretty well ideal so just add a squad of RM’s on board. Sounds like a job for Appledore and or CL ?
You can only laugh at these people making statements that mean absolutely nothing. Our only artic trained forces are the Royal Marines and they have been reduced in number and just had their ships scrapped with no replacement for at least a decade. The Bays are not replacements.
The U.K’s vulnerability in the north is extensive and is the back door to the North Atlantic but it seems SDR is likely to focus on mainland Europe where our Army is so small that it is almost an irrelevance. I wish that was not so but that’s the reality so why not focus any uplift in our maritime and airborne forces and stop the pretence.
So we have 5PDA, the Falklands, the Arctic, Kipion, home waters. All looked after by not much. We’re acting like the US with the capacity and capabilities of Spain!
When the Americans pursue a policy of isolationism, which seems entirely plausible at the moment the way the rhetoric is flowing, we will have our hands full just like 1940/41.
The Arctic won’t matter, neither will the Northern front or the Ostfront, we need to worry about the Western front and maybe the Southern front.
Obviously we will lose every battle until the last one as per usual.
All these shenanigans will come down to this “When the mob starts to reason all is lost, the ultimate minority is the individual”
Make peace you imbeciles 🫶☮️
You are following the rhetoric in the US through the prism of a British media that has absolutely no idea as to what is going on in the United States and its new administration. The last thing the MAGA movement is supporting is isolationism. It believes in engaging in the world and using America’s strengths to enhance American interests first rather than prop up supposed allies who refuse to pay their fair share towards their own defense and, while shielding themselves with American power, instead attempt to undermine and weaken the US at every opportunity. That’s what “America First” means. It does not mean withdrawal into isolationism but a more vigorous pursuit of American interests. You may not like it, but that’s what it is.
A country committed to isolationism doesn’t pursue the acquisition of Greenland, force its northern neighbor into sanity, start to reclaim the Panama Canal, confront Iran, attempt to reconfigure the Middle East, and confront China in its slow takeover in the Pacific.
No, Europeans scream “isolationism” when the US demands that it pay for its own security and that the US not pay for Europe’s priorities with American blood and treasure when those European priorities are not necessarily America’s priorities.
I am not convinced that allies try to undermine the US but more truthfully they might not agree with everything it says or does. Unfortunately for Europe it has become ever more dependent on US military power because it’s leaders have had the illusion that military might is old fashioned and all you need is soft power and engagement.
That logic is fundamentally naive and flawed as we can all see but if Europe wants to counter US and Chinese influence it needs to up its military and economic game because it is falling yet further behind.
The other part of the Trump strategy is of course protectionism and the likely imposition of tariffs, which are self defeating as most economists will tell you but Europe (EU) has had these in place for many years so there is a large amount of hypocrisy in many EU leaders statements on this issue. I suspect we will see fireworks soon after the inauguration.
The EU has it’s own tariffs in all but name. They just closet it under fancy names like the EU Agricultural Policy which provide handouts to artificially lower the price of EU farming products. The result is the same, products end up being cheaper than foreign imports. China does the same thing.
Commitment? Bulwark, Albion, 3Cdo Bde! True Commitment there.
Precisely he is talking utter b-ll-cks.
We have nothing to defend the Arctic with so this is all noise and no substance. Very much like the “commitment” to get to the 2.5% of GDP on defense spending. Words are cheap. Literally.
I just wish our actions spoke louder and not just have strong language