JOURNEY EAST: The commander of a British carrier strike group to the Indo-Pacific region did not rule out the possibility of passing through the Strait
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By Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA
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Threats and conflicts should not influence Taiwan’s future and there is “strong concern” for stability and security in the Indo-Pacific region, British Secretary of State for Defence John Healey said on Tuesday during a meeting at the House of Commons.
Healey made the comments as part of the House of Commons’ update on Ukraine.
“Part of the very strong message that the Chief of the Defence Staff [Admiral Antony Radakin] gave when he visited his counterparts in China [on April 9] is that we see the importance of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific as a matter not just for those nations in that region, and that the discussion on the future of Taiwan is necessarily one to be conducted by peaceful negotiation rather than by threats and conflict,” Healey said.
British Secretary of State for Defence John Healey speaks during a news conference following a meeting on Ukraine at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on April 11.
Photo: AFP
“There was also a very strong concern that the matter of stability, security and peace continuing in the Indo-Pacific is something of which we want China to be very well aware,” he said.
Radakin’s visit was the first time a high-ranking British military official had visited China since 2015.
The session opened with comments on the departure of the HMS Prince of Wales carrier strike group from Portsmouth, England, for a seven-and-a-half-month deployment to attend Operation Highmast alongside navies from the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
People wave British flags as they watch the HMS Prince of Wales leave from Portsmouth Naval Base in England on Tuesday.
Photo: AFP
Commodore James Blackmore, Commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group, told the Telegraph in an article published on Tuesday that he did not rule out the possibility the strike group would conduct a freedom of navigation operation through the Taiwan Strait.
“I will deliver whatever mission I am ordered to go and do — that’s my role,” the British daily quoted Blackmore as saying.
Although he did not discuss the specifics of their route, Blackmore told the Telegraph that the Royal Navy had a clear motive for the journey.
“One of the purposes of being in the region is to hold up international order,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “It’s demonstrating our commitment to that and reassuring our partners and allies. That choice of my routing will be taken by a much more senior government level.”
The HMS Richmond crossed through the Taiwan Strait in September 2021 on its way to Vietnam as a freedom of navigation exercise, with the British government stating at the time that “wherever the Royal Navy operate, they do so in full compliance with international law.”
