Britain should be ready to use military force to support its global interests after Brexit, defence minister Gavin Williamson said in a speech in London yesterday, adding that the boundaries between peace and war were becoming blurred.
Williamson outlined plans to send Britain’s new aircraft carrier to the Pacific, invest in offensive cyber capabilities and adopt a harder military stance after Brexit than it had done in recent years. He described the boundaries between peace and war as becoming “blurred” and said that Britain and its allies had to be ready “to use hard power to support our interests”.
Britain is in the midst of its most severe political crisis since World War II as Prime Minister Theresa May scrambles to find a last-minute agreement on leaving the EU with only weeks until it is due to end over four decades of political and economic integration in Europe. Brexit has been seen as a blow to the West, already struggling to assimilate Russian and Chinese power as well as Donald Trump’s unpredictable US presidency. Brexit supporters hail it as a chance for Britain to take on a new global role.
“We can build new alliances, rekindle old ones and most importantly make it clear that we are the country that will act when required,” Williamson said.
He announced that the first mission of the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier would include work in the Mediterranean, Middle East and Pacific regions, and the vessel would carry two squadrons of British and US F-35 jets.
Williamson highlighted close US-UK military links and echoed Trump’s call for Nato countries to increase their spending, citing a need to better handle what Williamson called Russian provocation.
Moscow’s relations with the West were strained over issues including Russia’s annexation of the Crimea from Ukraine, allegations of meddling in the last US presidential election and being behind a nerve agent attack in Britain. “Such action from Russia must come at a cost,” Williamson said.
He warned that the cost of non-
interventions had often been “unacceptably high” and said that Western powers could not ignore those in need.
Meanwhile, the EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said yesterday that May should endorse a permanent customs union with the bloc - as proposed by the opposition Labour party - to break the impasse over their looming divorce.
Barnier told a news conference in Luxembourg that time was “extremely short” to conclude a deal before Britain is due to leave the bloc on March 29.
The EU is urging May to work with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to unlock ratification of the withdrawal agreement she negotiated with Brussels. British MPs rejected the deal, agreed in November, in a vote last month, leaving Britain with no transition period to minimise expected economic disruption.
“I found Corbyn’s letter interesting in tone and in content,” Barnier said of the Labour leader’s Brexit proposals, sent to May. “Something has to give on the British side.”
He reiterated the controversial Irish border fix in Britain’s stalled withdrawal agreement was an insurance policy the EU hoped never to use.
Barnier reiterated the bloc would not return to talks on the legal withdrawal treaty but could tweak the accompanying political declaration on EU-UK ties after Brexit.
“We are determined to organise an orderly withdrawal,” he said. Reuters