Yes, it has to be militarily. It is more important to us (and our living standards) in what is going on the Gulf or in the South China Sea that what is going on in the Eastern Baltics or the Ukraine. If you are not willing to protect those interests, expect to lose them.SW1 wrote:There is the problem, the assumption that we need to focus elsewhere and to assume we do, means that we have to militarily.
However, I am in no way pushing a 18-19th century model of forward fleets. I see no need to forward base GP Frigates for example. The future of U.K. global presence is through a combination of providing valuable specialist skills / kit on an more permanent basis, and with strong alliances with other like minded nations that are capable of integrating to become a larger more relevant force.
By the former, I mean providing MCM capability to the Gulf, or Survey capability in the Far East. It is something the UK excels at and buys influence.
The latter part, is working with nations like Canada and Australia, where when something happens a force can come together that has a significant military effect beyond the strengths of the individual nations, be it in the North Atlantic to counter Russia or in the South China Sea to counter China.
This requires a number of things:
- First class kit, training and logistics
- Regular training deployments
- Close security coordination, information sharing and decision making
- A closer alignment on equipment
It does not require “19” frigates to arbitrarily tick a box.