Welcome to the 74th Cable, our weekly roundup of British foreign and defence policy.
On Friday, 23rd January, the United States (US) published its new National Defence Strategy (NDS), which reiterated the core message from its National Security Strategy released in late November 2025. The documents are clear; America is reorienting its strategic priorities towards Western Hemispheric security and the Indo-Pacific, and away from the Euro-Atlantic and the Middle East. The NDS also outlines the role that the US administration expects its allies to play in this new strategy – namely to take ‘primary responsibility’ for their own ‘conventional defence, with critical but more limited American support’.
While this transformation has been telegraphed for quite some time, the United Kingdom (UK) and its European allies and partners are not in a position to assume this primary responsibility effectively. This situation was made even clearer by the news last week that HMS Richmond, one of the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigates, will likely be decommissioned by the end of 2026, leaving Britain with only six operational frigates and no new vessels expected to enter service before late 2028.
In an increasingly contested geostrategic environment, and with growing demands on the British Armed Forces, His Majesty’s (HM) Government should prioritise defence – in particular its naval forces – to enhance European security to the best of the UK’s abilities.
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On 28th January, Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister, flew to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the first visit by a British leader in over seven years. The trip will focus on boosting economic ties between the world’s second and sixth largest economies, and comes just days after HM Government approved the planning permission for the PRC’s so-called ‘mega-embassy’ in London. In an interview on 26th January, Sir Keir stated that he will not ‘choose between the US or China’ critiquing previous governments’ positions on the East Asian giant, stating ‘for years we have blown hot and cold…We had the golden age, which then flipped to an ice age. We reject that binary choice.’
Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Sir John Stringer has been appointed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR). The role is always held by a British representative, reflecting the UK’s central position in the alliance and its ‘NATO-first’ approach. ACM Stringer will take over from Adm. Sir Keith Blount in March 2026, who has held the position since July 2023.
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has announced that seven industry partners have been invited to bring forward their designs for ‘loyal wingman’ drones, which will accompany British Army helicopters. Known as Project NXY, these drones will work alongside Apache attack helicopters to perform a variety of complex tasks, such as reconnaissance and surveillance in contested areas, strike and target acquisition, and Electronic Warfare (EW). The project is expected to reach initial operational capability in 2030.
Last week, a senior official responsible for the Ajax armoured vehicle programme in the MOD was removed from his post following a ministerial review which revealed that ministers were not fully informed of known safety concerns before the platform was declared safe for use. The future of the Ajax programme, already over budget and behind schedule, will be decided in the coming months. This comes after a number of soldiers became ill due to noise and vibrations during a training exercise in November 2025.
On 21st January, the Prime Minister hosted Prabowo Subianto, President of Indonesia, at 10 Downing Street, following the signing of a New Strategic Partnership between the two countries. This partnership will focus on four strategic pillars: economic growth, climate and energy, defence and security, and people and society.
On 13th January, several HM Government departments launched a joint call for a ‘fully-developed Counter-Unmanned Aerial System (C-UAS) solution’ to detect, track and identify threats using systems which are at a technological readiness level of eight or above. Interested suppliers will be required to submit their Expression of Interest by 30th January.
For additional defence news stories, follow this link to the DSEI Gateway news portal.
Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, was in Germany on 26th January for the Future of the North Seas Summit, where he signed a clean energy security pact – the Hamburg Declaration – with nine other European countries. The ten nations, including France, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway as well as the UK, will pledge to build 100 Gigawatts (GW) of joint offshore wind projects, including ‘offshore wind hybrid assets’ – wind farms at sea that are directly connected to more than one country through interconnectors. Miliband stated that the deal would ‘transform’ the North Sea into the world’s largest ‘clean energy reservoir’.
How competitors frame Britain
The Global Times reported on comments made by Guo Jaikun, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on the upcoming visit of Sir Keir to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Jaikun stated that ‘in a turbulent and volatile world, China and the UK, as permanent members of the UN [United Nations] Security Council, will benefit the world and the two countries themselves by stepping up exchanges and cooperation. For a warmer relationship between the two countries, Beijing must act as a responsible nation on the world stage.
TASS released propaganda stating that the Coalition of the Willing’s primary objective is to ‘preserve the former Nazi regime within the remaining Ukrainian territory…and build a frontline of containment against Russia based on Ukraine.’ Russian state media is once again trying to shift the blame for the Kremlin’s current predicament onto Ukraine’s allies and partners.
Addressing the 56th World Economic Forum in Davos, Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, counselled the world’s ‘middle powers’ – those nations that rely on multilateral safeguards for their security – to relinquish their fidelity to the ‘rules-based international order’. Instead, he urged them to embrace a ‘variable geometry’ of coalition building to protect their interests.
Given the mentions of ‘American hegemony’, it is clear that Carney’s speech was targeted at the administration of Donald Trump, President of the US. For this reason, the speech was roundly applauded; some analysts have even described it as one of the seminal geopolitical speeches of the modern era. Yet, upon closer scrutiny, the argument paradoxically exhibits the very deficiencies that the Canadian Prime Minister himself identifies.
One must question where the true responsibility for the erosion of the rules-based international order lies. While Trump is hardly exempt from criticism – especially in relation to his behaviour over Ukraine and Greenland – Canada and most European states have failed to maintain the essential instruments of national power – specifically, robust armed forces – needed to deter non-compliance. Rather than maintaining their defences, Canada and most European countries stepped back from geopolitics. They appealed to the rules-based international system, significantly reduced their defence budgets, and exposed themselves to exploitation.
Instead of demilitarising in tandem, their rivals, such as Russia and the PRC, merely stepped forward to fill the vacuum. This is most evident in the South China Sea, where the PRC has mounted a series of territorial seizures over islands and low-tide elevations, as well as in Europe, where Russia felt free to annex parts of Ukraine before mounting a full-scale invasion.
The UK began to acknowledge the necessity of a new strategic paradigm in 2021 with the publication of the Integrated Review. This document interrogated the efficacy of the rules-based international order, asserting that ‘a defence of the status quo is no longer sufficient for the decade ahead’. If Britain is to succeed in the 21st century, it must not only accept this rationale but extend it significantly. Rather than clinging to an outmoded multilateralism, the UK should prioritise minilateral frameworks founded upon shared strategic interests.
Yet, Britain must go still further; even interest-based minilateralism remains ineffectual without the requisite strength and will to underpin it. As a large advanced economy and nuclear-weapon state commanding a prime geographic location and strategic footholds around the world, the UK should reject calls for modesty – specifically the nomenclature of ‘middle-power’ status – and reclaim the mindset of a pivotal power.
As the old international order crumbles, Britain requires both the material capability and the political resolve to provide leadership. Absent this foundation, Carney’s ‘variable geometry’ risks succumbing to the very same infirmities that dissolved the rules-based international order.
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The UK needs to disengage it's 'independent' nuclear deterrent from dependence on the US. As a soveriegn nuclear capable nation the UK should not be dependent on the willingness of the US President to permit the UK to lease D5 Trident missiles from the US, an arrangement that can be revoked at any time. If the UK developed it's own heavy launch space delivery system (as France always has) we would not be in the ridiculous position of having to always be subservient to US foreign policy, often arguably against it's own interests. The cost could even be off-set by commercial satellite launches.