Johnson’s Global Britain will focus on Indo-Pacific and nuclear power
Relevant news and chapters of the report on the Integrated Review of Security, Defense, Development and Foreign Policies prepared by the British government and presented by Premier Johnson. The point of Daniele Meloni
Global Britain in a Competitive Age. This is the name of the report on the Integrated Review of Security, Defense, Development and Foreign Policies prepared by the British government and presented by Premier Boris Johnson to the House of Commons this morning in Westminster. It is a fundamental document for the future of the United Kingdom because it outlines, for the first time, the geopolitical strategy of London after Brexit.
INDO-PACIFIC FOCUS FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM
A renewed focus on the Indo-Pacific region, the creation of a new situation room within the Cabinet Office and an Anti-Terror Operations Center are the focal points of a 100-page document that both Whitehall, and Johnson's closest associates.
THE GEOPOLITICAL STRATEGY OF THE UK GOVERNMENT
The position taken by the Tory government – which sets the future of the country between now and 2030 – is based on the certain fact of the crisis of the liberal international order and on the renewed assertiveness of new players, such as Russia and China, powers that seek to take advantage of the chaos in today's world to carry out their strategies. Precisely for this reason the Report defines China as a "systemic threat" and Russia as a "current threat" for the United Kingdom and for the entire West.
INVESTMENTS IN DEFENSE
After pledging to invest over 16 billion in defense between now and the end of the legislature in his speech to the municipalities in November 2020, Johnson has found words and ways to define his Global Britain, a bulwark of NATO and the Euro-Atlantic alliance but with an eye increasingly turned to the Indo-Pacific and the South China Sea, where the new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will land, to testify that London is serious in that area.
JOHNSON'S DIPLOMATIC MISSION
The Premier announced that his first major diplomatic mission since the pandemic will be in India at the end of April. And India, Japan and Australia are the countries that London looks to, also in view of that D10 of the major world democracies that Johnson and US President Biden would like to bring together in the G7 in Cornwall next June.
CLIMATE DOSSIER
The Integrated Review also includes London's commitment to comply with the 2015 Paris Agreements on Co2 emissions, fight Climate Change and protect biodiversity in the UK. Another point of contact with Biden's agenda, in view of the next UN Summit on climate change to be held in Glasgow under the British presidency (and with the Italian partnership).
NUCLEAR CHAPTER
Finally, last but not least, a drastic change in the structure of nuclear policy. The UK government plans to roll out the warheads located at the Faslane base by 40% over the next 10 years and renew its nuclear weapons fleet. An epochal change of pace compared to what we have seen from the end of the Cold War to today and thirty years of constant reduction of armaments. Now the maximum number of publications will be set at 260 and no longer at 180 as in the last decade. At the expense of this will be the army which should be reduced by 10 thousand units – from 82 to 72 thousand – and the Challenger tanks which will also be reduced.
THE CRITICISM
Tory Tobias Ellwood, head of the House of Commons Defense Committee, criticized this radical change, just as Labor expressed concern over what they called the Johnson government's "lack of vision". Labor leader Starmer said in the courtroom that the government's modus operandi towards China is "inconsistent" and that although Labor is committed to maintaining the nuclear deterrent, it is not clear why the government wants to increase its capacity.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/la-global-britain-di-johnson-puntera-su-indo-pacifico-e-nucleare/ on Tue, 16 Mar 2021 13:47:00 +0000.