TruthTheOnlyDefense
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© PA The HMS Queen Elizabeth., the British navy's newest and most expensive aircraft carrier, will be accompanied by Australian navy ships through the South China Sea.
The Australian navy has been invited to accompany the pride of Britain’s fleet, the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, when it comes to the Pacific - a joint show of strength that will be interpreted as a reply to growing Chinese influence and activity in the region.
The HMS Queen Elizabeth deployment may include a “freedom of navigation” exercise in the South China Sea, which China has claimed as its strategic backyard.
The massive new ship’s trip to the Pacific – expected in several years’ time once it has finished trials and been fully fitted out – was previously flagged by former British foreign secretary Boris Johnson, but new details were revealed after a meeting of the two countries’ foreign and defence ministers in Edinburgh on Friday.
“We are very much hoping and going to work together on deploying HMS Queen Elizabeth to the Pacific and hopefully sailing side by side with Australian vessels,” UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said.
“We want to make sure that everyone around the world understands that these two great nations are the greatest of allies."
He did not say whether Australia would accompany the carrier into the South China Sea.
Earlier this year Britain’s national security adviser Mark Sedwill said the Queen Elizabeth would need support from friendly forces on high-end combat missions, due to the decreasing size of its escort fleet.
Kim Darroch, Britain’s ambassador to the US, said at a think-tank event in Washington last year that his country’s two new aircraft carriers would “be seen in the Pacific” with the objective “to protect freedom of navigation and to keep sea routes and air routes open”.
Johnson said last year: "One of the first things we will do with the two new colossal aircraft carriers that we have just built is send them on a freedom of navigation operation to [the South China Sea] to vindicate our belief in the rules-based international system and in the freedom of navigation through those waterways which are absolutely vital for world trade."
The aircraft carriers would carry fighter jets, helicopters and drones including anti-submarine aircraft.
Williamson said there was an increasing “submarine threat” in the North Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. This year Britain deployed three navy warships to the Pacific for the first time since 2013. HMS Sutherland conducted exercises with the Australian navy in March and also sailed through the South China Sea. HMS Albion helped enforce sanctions against North Korea.
Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said the recent agreement to purchase UK ‘Type 26’ frigates, to be built in Australia as ‘Hunter’ combat ships, was another example of how the two countries were working more closely together not just in deployment but in inter-operable technology.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt pointed out that Britain was also increasing its diplomatic presence in the Pacific, opening new embassies in Pacific nations.
Hunt and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop emphasised it was a time of global uncertainty with threats to the international order that made the close relationship between the two countries particularly important.
Hunt said the relationship was “not just based on [the] ‘you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours’ kind of transactional relationships that are so common in international diplomacy”.
Bishop said the Edinburgh meeting had been one of the most productive she could remember, with “unprecedented levels” of co-operation agreed in areas including diplomacy, security, intelligence and humanitarian issues.
Payne said the four ministers had discussed “hybrid threats” to security such as cyber attacks, and “foreign interference”.
Bishop said Donald Trump’s push to increase US allies’ defence spending made a “very valid point” that the ministers had discussed at length, and they had agreed that more must be done to share the burden of global security with the US.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/aust...in-south-china-sea/ar-BBKSxZD?ocid=spartandhp
