China, Russia, Iran and North Korea increasingly acting together against the West, says defense review chief
Tuesday 16 July 2024 00:01 BST
Britain and its allies face a “deadly quartet” of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea acting together against the West, according to the new head of the Labour Party’s defence review.
George Robertson, a former NATO secretary general, said the UK must be prepared to confront all four if necessary, reflecting Western concerns that the group is increasingly sharing weapons, components and military intelligence.
Flanked by new Defence Secretary John Healey, Lord Robertson told a briefing: “We are faced with a deadly quartet of nations that are increasingly working together” and that Britain and its Nato allies must “be able to confront this particular quartet”.
The peer was referring to the four nations seen as hostile to the West and now seen as posing the main threat to UK security as Islamist terrorism has declined.
Robertson, who was also defence secretary under Tony Blair, was speaking as his appointment to lead a three-person strategic defence review was announced by Healey. The strategic exercise will conclude in the first half of next year and will help ministers set foreign and defence policy priorities for the rest of parliament.
The China inquiry chief’s language represents a marked change in tone from the previous administration’s approach, which preferred to describe Beijing as a “systemic challenge” rather than a threat, but reflects a hardening seen at last week’s NATO summit.
In Washington DC, the 32-nation alliance blamed China for acting as a “decisive facilitator” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, supplying Moscow with weapons components and chemicals for explosives – the strongest criticism yet levelled by the North Atlantic alliance against Beijing.
Robertson said that “last week’s NATO summit in Washington made it clear that the challenge posed by China was something that had to be taken very, very seriously” and that “what happens in the Asia-Pacific region can happen in the Euro-Atlantic region very quickly afterwards.”
Iran and North Korea also supplied drones and artillery shells to Russia to support Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine – and the tactics used by Moscow were in turn applied by Tehran when it launched a major missile and drone raid on Israel in April in response to the bombing of its embassy in Damascus.
Last week, US President Joe Biden also highlighted the fact that the four countries were increasingly acting together. “It’s concerning to see China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, countries that haven’t necessarily coordinated in the past, looking at how they can have a greater impact,” he said, though he said he wouldn’t elaborate publicly on what he thought that impact would be.
The US president said he wants Chinese President Xi Jinping to understand that there is “a price to pay” for continuing to help Russia in the war in Ukraine.
Healey praised Robertson, who will work alongside Fiona Hill, a British-born expert on Russian affairs who has advised US presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and General Sir Richard Barrons, a former British deputy chief of the defence staff, for taking on the review.
The three represent, Healey said, “the best combination of outside experts we could muster,” and they will work together within the Defense Department, consulting and gathering submissions from the military, defense industry, academics and other experts before producing the findings.
Healey said he hoped the exercise would be an “assessment of British defence, not just the defence of the new Labour government”. He said it would take place “against the backdrop of war in Europe with Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine” and “conflict in the Middle East, growing threats and aggression and instability around the world”. Its aim would be to “consider the threats we face, the capabilities we need, the state of our armed forces and also the resources available”.
In addition to Healey, the team will report to Keir Starmer, the prime minister, and Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and its work will help determine when Labour, as it has promised, will raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP from its current level of 2.32%, an increase of around £5bn in real terms.
Healey was cautious about when Labor might set a timetable for reaching that threshold, saying only that it would be announced at a future “budget event”. A first budget is expected in the autumn, but the defence secretary did not say whether a budget decision could be anticipated at that time.
The new minister also said he had not been appointed to the job to “reduce the size of the armed forces” and complained that the size of the British army had fallen below the previous government’s target of 73,000. He also insisted that if Trump were elected US president it would not pose a threat to NATO.
Healey argued that the NATO alliance was enduring, having lasted 75 years since its creation in the aftermath of World War II – and that the UK and other members would be pragmatic if the Republican returned to the White House, saying: “We will work with the president-elect, whoever that is.”
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