The United Kingdom looks to China as representing a “time-defining challenge” to the world order and seeing UK and European security tied to Russia’s unsuccessful prosecution of its war in Ukraine, an update on the strategic foreign and defense policy which UK blueprint.
In a “refresh” to the Integrated Review (IR) policy paper, the UK highlights the challenges posed by China and its deepening cooperation with Russia, as well as Moscow’s growing cooperation with Iran. The 63-page report released on Monday reinforces the UK’s language and positioning towards Beijing and Moscow and highlights the systemic and existential threat the two countries pose to the UK, Europe and the wider world order. based on rules.
While the review for 2021 is already there Russia identified as “UK’s most serious security threat”the latest analysis states that the collective security of the UK and Europe is now tied to the outcome of Moscow’s war in Ukraine and “denying Russia of any strategic benefit from its aggression”.
“Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, its weaponization of energy and food supplies and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric, along with China’s increasingly aggressive stance in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, threaten to create a world defined of danger, chaos and division,” UK Prime Minister Richi Sunak wrote in the foreword to the review.
Sunak said “the pace of geopolitical change and the extent of its impact on the UK and our people” could not have been seen as recently as 2021, when the last review was published.
The review states that the UK’s provision of 2.3 billion pounds ($2.8bn) in military and humanitarian aid to Kyivas well as hundreds of targeted sanctions targeting allies, have “weakened Russia’s war machine … and set international justice for Moscow’s horrific war crimes “.
“The UK aims to deter and challenge Russia’s ability and intent to destabilize UK security, the Euro-Atlantic and the wider international order,” the analysis said.
Warnings about threats posed by China are equally stark.
“China under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses a momentous and systemic challenge with implications for almost every area of government policy and the everyday lives of British people,” said the review.
Worryingly for the UK is that Beijing has chosen to continue to strengthen its relationship with Russia despite Moscow’s aggression towards Ukraine, and that Beijing also continues to ignore international human rights commitments in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet.
China’s “new multilateralism” also poses a challenge to the protection of human rights and guarantees of freedoms under the United Nations system, as Beijing is also engaged in “rapid and unclear military modernization”, and maintained its position that force could be used to unite Taiwan with mainland China.
Unlike in Moscow, there was hope for relations with Beijing because “the UK does not accept that China’s relationship with the UK or its impact on the international system is set on a predetermined course”, the review added. .
“But we believe it depends on the choices China makes, and it will be more difficult if trends toward more authoritarianism and assertiveness abroad continue.”
Increased spending on defense and national security is needed by the UK now and in the future, the review states and includes plans to spend an extra 5 billion pounds ($6bn) on defense over the next two years, focusing mainly on in nuclear resilience and replenishing that is depleted. ammunition stocks. The review also sets out an ambition to allocate 2.5 percent of the UK’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) defense spending, up from the current 2.2 percent.
The decision not to portray China as a threat to the UK in the review is likely to upset many in Sunak’s Conservative Party, Reuters news agency reported, adding that party members believed his pledge to spend extra 5 billion pounds ($6bn) in Defense is not enough to support Ukraine and adequately protect the UK.
Conservative Party lawmaker Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House of Commons Defense Committee, described the situation as “flying towards a new Cold War”, and although threats against the UK have increased, the country remains in “peacetime” budget spending for security, The Associated Press news agency reported.
Monday’s release of the review coincided with the UK, US and Australia deepening their AUKUS military pact by announcing the sale of US nuclear-powered submarines to Australia and also the cooperation of Washington, London and Canberra in the development of a new class of nuclear-powered submarines in the future.
UK Foreign Minister James Cleverly said in a statement to the UK parliament on Monday introducing the new review that “threats have grown and systemic competition has intensified” around the world.
“There is a growing prospect of further deterioration in the coming years,” he said, referring to both North Korea and Iran.
“We live in a competitive age and the security challenges facing British people today are the most serious in at least a generation.”