Welcome to the 75th Cable, our weekly roundup of British foreign and defence policy.
Following his trip to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) last week, Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister, flew to Japan for talks with Sanae Takaichi, Prime Minister of Japan. These discussions centred on the two nations’ ‘joint values’ and boosting bilateral ties, especially in the trade, defence and technology sectors.
In a press statement following the meetings, Sir Keir stated that the relationship between the United Kingdom (UK) and Japan is the ‘strongest now that it has been in decades’, and set out clear priorities to ‘build an even deeper partnership’ for the future. His speech focused on three areas for collaboration, technology and innovation – including a new Strategic Cyber Partnership, enhancing energy security and resilience, and promoting free and open trade, including expanding the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP) and diversifying supply chains in sectors such as critical minerals.
As two large island nations with a shared desire to protect the free and open international order, while also having the fourth and sixth largest economies in the world by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the relationship between Britain and Japan is one to watch in the coming years.
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Ministers from more than 20 countries, including the UK, United States (US) and Japan, as well as representatives from the European Union (EU), will meet in Washington today to discuss the development of a strategic alliance over critical minerals. The purpose of the meeting will be to ramp up non-Chinese supply chains as fast as possible, with potential pricing and investment support. This comes after Beijing imposed export restrictions on rare earths last year. The PRC also enjoys a near-monopoly in rare earth supply chains, accounting for almost 70% of ore production and over 90% of refining capacity.
Navantia, a Spanish state-owned company, announced last week that construction on the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ships had begun in Spain. Construction of the three vessels is taking place at Navantia’s Puerto Real shipyard in Cádiz, where modules for the ships will be manufactured before being transferred to Britain for final assembly. The new FSS ships are expected to be delivered in 2031.
Last week, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) announced the establishment of a defence Office for Small Business Growth (OFSBG) to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) operating in defence. The office is set to become a ‘central hub’, providing domestic and export guidance alongside other business support to the approximately 12,000 SMEs in the sector. The OFSBG appears to have been modelled on the US Department of War’s ‘Office of Small Business Programmes’, which was established in 2006 to bolster small business engagement.
For additional defence news stories, follow this link to the DSEI Gateway news portal.
The MOD has also announced that the British Armed Forces will receive new powers to ‘defeat drones’ following an increase in incidents near military bases. The Armed Forces Bill will allow personnel to destroy land drones or those that can be operated on or under water in addition to aerial drones. In 2025, more than 250 drone incidents occurred near UK military sites – double the number in 2024.
According to new reporting, Britain installed 262,000 solar panel units in 2025, a 37% increase over 2024. Analysis by The Telegraph suggests that this growth was driven by households and businesses installing rooftop solar panels. Overall, the UK set a new record for solar power in 2025, generating 19 Terawatt hours (Twh); a 31% increase over 2024.
How competitors frame Britain
Sputnik International published propaganda calling for any revised Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) – a proposed nuclear arms reduction treaty – to include Britain, France and the PRC. The article claims that both the UK and France should be included due to the fact that they are ‘actively building a “nuclear umbrella” over Europe “aimed squarely at Russia”.’ Britain and France have long maintained a nuclear deterrent for national security, and it is only Russia which has engaged in irresponsible sabre-rattling in recent years.
The Global Times released an opinion piece on the domestic criticism Sir Keir has faced following his recent trip to the PRC. The article claims that these critiques stem from both partisan and ideological positions alongside the UK’s longstanding ‘alignment with US foreign policy.’ The piece continues that the Prime Minister’s trip was a ‘pragmatic attempt to adapt’ to the changing geopolitical environment and ‘strains within the transatlantic alliance’. While there are pragmatic and economic reasons to engage with the PRC, Sir Keir has made it clear that he is not choosing between Washington and Beijing.
Sharpening space competition puts pressure on Britain
The pace and scale of strategic developments in the space domain has increased markedly in recent years. But, even by these new standards, the past week has been remarkable. Preparations for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Artemis II lunar fly-by mission – now postponed – became a global story, echoing some of the public fascination with the original Cold War race to the Moon.
It has been over half a century since any human ventured beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and onto the lunar surface. For new generations, the cultural impact of repeating the feat will be considerable. The strategic consequences are bound to be even more important, because this time the US is returning to the Moon to stay – and, in time, build a lunar economy.
All this may sound abstract now, but in a few years, images of astronauts walking on the Moon again will create a new reality and open a new chapter in astropolitics. The coming decades will inevitably see vast developments in space exploration, with the Moon likely at their centre. Britain opts out of a major role in this only at its peril.
This week’s announcement of the merging of SpaceX with xAI, with a view to build vast Artificial Intelligence (AI) training datacentres in orbit, confirms the immense stakes at play in the space domain – and the fact that the UK, as an aspiring space power, cannot wish them away. Technological and industrial advancements, such as ultra-heavy lift reusable rockets and megaconstellations, have unlocked a new strategic logic in this limitless arena which links AI, energy, dataflows and the global economy and security. The ability to launch orders of magnitude more mass into orbit enables, for example, the build-out of huge space-based solar farms that solve the energy problem limiting progress on Earth, or of other large infrastructures, including on the Moon.
The industrial and operational challenges will be huge, but Starlink has proved they can be managed. Space development will continue at an increasing pace, irrespective of the ultimate fate of any individual company.
This reality is now prompting a dramatic surge in European space spending. Germany, in particular, will pour €35 billion (£30 billion) in military space capabilities within the next five years. But, in Singapore this week, Maj. Gen. Michael Traut, head of German Space Command, made surprisingly explicit statements about Berlin acquiring counterspace systems to ‘disrupt’ hostile satellites.
Space weapons are no longer taboo, or marginal, but an open and urgent subject on the international defence agenda. Britain needs its own, and needs them quickly.
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