The UK is ready to fight if conflict breaks out in the Pacific, British Secretary of State for Defence John Healey said on Sunday.
Healey made the remarks on board the British Royal Navy’s HMS Prince of Wales alongside Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, who is also the Australian minister for defence, as the aircraft carrier berthed at the Port of Darwin in preparation for conducting joint military drills with the US and other allies, the Telegraph reported on Sunday.
Asked what the UK has been doing to help regional partners such as Taiwan defend against Chinese military threats, Healey said: “If we have to fight, as we have done in the past, Australia and the UK are nations that will fight together. We exercise together and by exercising together and being more ready to fight, we deter better together.”
Photo: Screen grab from UK Carrier Strike Group’s X account
Healey’s remarks were described by the Telegraph as “among the most robust from a British representative” on the UK’s possible engagement in a war in the Indo-Pacific region.
Healy said the UK would still prefer to resolve regional disputes “peacefully” and “diplomatically.”
“We secure peace through strength, and our strength comes from our allies,” he said.
London has previously refrained from commenting on whether it would intervene directly in potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait, although the British Royal Navy has deployed two vessels in the Indo-Pacific for long-term, regular patrols, the Telegraph reported.
The National Security Strategy published by the British government earlier this year said that “there is a particular risk of escalation around Taiwan.”
There are threats in the Indo-Pacific region, as Beijing has occupied several contested reefs in the region and continued to intimidate nearby countries, Healey said.
This is the first time in 30 years that a UK naval carrier group has docked in Australia and the first time a non-US aircraft carrier has played a role in a Talisman Sabre exercise, the newspaper said.
The ship is on a nine-month tour of the region, stopping in Singapore then Darwin before moving on to Tokyo, the report said, adding that it could transit the Taiwan Strait while on the way to Japan.
“We have a direct interest in the international rules, the freedom of the seas, the freedom of navigation, and the stability and security in the Indo-Pacific,” the report quoted Healey as saying regarding plans to transit the Strait.
On Friday, following the Australia-UK Ministerial Consultations in Sydney attended by Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) and Marles, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy and Healey, they issued a joint statement saying the ministers “agreed on the critical importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
They also “called for the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues through dialogue and not through the threat or use of force or coercion, and reaffirmed their opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo.”
Thanking the ministers, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Australia and the UK are like-minded partners of Taiwan, and that Taiwan, as an indispensable member of the international community, would continue to collaborate with like-minded democratic partners to uphold the rules-based international order, and strengthen democracy, peace and prosperity in the region.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS