Welcome to the 63rd Cable, our weekly roundup of British foreign and defence policy.
On 2nd October, leaders from over 40 European countries descended on Copenhagen, Denmark, for the seventh European Political Community (EPC) Summit, which focused on enhancing European security following a growing number of air and drone incursions into European airspace.
Despite the increasing sub-threshold threat to European countries from Russia, the nations of the continent remain divided on how to enhance security and maintain support for Ukraine, with no decision being made on using frozen Russian assets in support of Kyiv, and the idea of a drone wall to protect Europe facing significant obstacles. While obfuscations persist, European countries will need to find common ground to ensure Russia cannot continue its campaign against free and open countries across the continent.
Welcome back to The Cable!
Details emerged last week that fighter jets from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) carried out simulated attacks on HMS Richmond, a Type 23 frigate, as it passed through the Taiwan Strait in September. HMS Richmond is part of the United Kingdom (UK)-led Carrier Strike Group 2025 (CSG2025), and entered the Strait alongside the United States (US) Navy’s USS Higgins, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, as part of a freedom of navigation exercise. While the ships conducted the exercise, Chinese jets carried out ‘constructive kills’, which is when a fighter jet performs the manoeuvres necessary to launch an attack but stops short of launching a missile.
Last week, His Majesty’s (HM) Government confirmed it has resumed negotiations for a UK-Greenland trade deal focused on seafood and critical minerals. Beneath Greenland’s territory lie 40 of the 50 minerals which the US Government designates as vital for national security, including uranium, copper, graphite, nickel and rare earth metals. While these resources remain mostly unexploited, interest in mining them is growing, with British firms currently holding a third of mining licences in the autonomous territory.
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has announced £2.5 billion in public funding to support defence skills and jobs in Scotland, which will include a new welding skills centre in Glasgow to create the workforce required to support the delivery of the Royal Navy’s fleet of submarines. The centre will initially be operated by Rolls-Royce Submarines, in partnership with Malin Group and Strathclyde University, with potential future capacity for other organisations.
Both the UK and Germany are enhancing their space capabilities, with Berlin announcing that it will invest €35 billion (£26 billion) to bolster its space capabilities by 2030, while the MOD has revealed that it is developing new sensors which will be able to identify laser threats from adversaries to military and civilian satellites in space. This is in response to the rising threats in the space domain from Russia and the PRC, with Maj. Gen. Paul Tedman, Head of UK Space Command, recently revealing that Russia has been attempting to interfere with British satellites on a ‘persistent basis’.
For additional defence news stories, follow this link to the DSEI Gateway news portal.
Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, announced plans to introduce legislation to ban fracking for shale gas in England permanently. This was a pledge in the Labour Party’s 2024 manifesto, with Miliband stating that he wishes to introduce this legislation at ‘the earliest opportunity.’ While Britain is believed to have considerable reserves of shale gas, estimates vary as to how much could be economically viable to extract. The industry has been controversial in the UK for decades, with a moratorium on fracking in England first being introduced in 2019, and reinstated in 2022.
On 5th October, CSG2025 started its participation in Exercise KONKAN with the Indian Navy in the western Indian Ocean. The four-day exercise focuses on increasing combined maritime and air capabilities between the Royal Navy and the Indian Navy, and marks the first time that British and Indian carrier strike groups will conduct maritime exercises together.
How competitors frame Britain
Sputnik International published propaganda stating that the UK is compensating for its domestic problems by ‘fostering Russophobia’. The article further states that Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister, is ‘100% committed to continuing the Ukraine war until a military solution is found. Therefore, traditional Russophobia is coming to the forefront.’ A ridiculous claim from Russian state media; HM Government’s position focuses on ensuring that Ukraine remains a sovereign nation, secure from the imperialist ambitions of the Kremlin.
Russia Today reported on a claim by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) that Britain ‘is furious’ over its failure to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ against Russia, and HM Government is preparing ‘new provocation’ in response. The SVR also claimed that pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters are receiving instruction in the UK on ‘sabotage training’ to cause a false flag incident on either a European port or civilian ship. The Russian intelligence community continues to delve further down the conspiracy rabbit hole – no surprises there.
Last weekend, the ANO Party (an acronym for ‘Action of Dissatisfied Citizens’ in Czech, but also translated literally as ‘yes’), led by billionaire Andrej Babiš, won the parliamentary elections in Czechia. ANO is described as a populist right wing party, and to achieve a majority it will require negotiations with other parties to form a coalition.
The direction of Czech foreign policy under Babiš is yet to be clarified. Coalition partners will have an impact, and Babiš himself has both criticised the extent of Czech support for Ukraine – including the lack of transparency of the Czech ammunition initiative – but has also attempted to ease concerns by emphasising that the ANO Party will be a reliable North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) partner. British-Czech relations are rarely given much limelight, so just how extensive are they?
Trade relations remain relatively limited. The total value of bilateral trade over the last year was around £10.7 billion, of which £3.6 billion was British exports to Czechia, and £7.1 billion was British imports from Czechia. This accounts for 0.6% of the UK’s total trade, and makes Czechia Britain’s 30th most significant trading partner. However, bilateral trade relations look set to grow in the coming years, driven by strategic factors rather than economic ones.
Although defence industrial relations have grown, this has been, for the most part, driven by British subsystems and components rather than direct exports. The only notable direct export has been the recent order for 18 vehicles from British company Supacat.
Yet, equipment with significant parts from UK-based businesses have seen real success in Czech defence order books. Prague signed a £1.7 billion deal with BAE Systems’ Swedish subsidiary to provide almost 250 CV90 infantry fighting vehicles, as well as announcing its intention to place a multi-billion pound order of 24 F-35A Lightning II Joint Combat Aircraft from the US; a design of which between 15-20% is British-built.
The UK and Czechia have also signed a deal which will see Rolls-Royce support the delivery of up to six Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in Czechia, and also opens the way for joint delivery of further SMRs to other European countries.
Much more could be done with the bilateral relationship to build on existing ties. For example, Czechia is a participating country in the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), a NATO Corps with Britain as the framework nation.
Both the UK and Czechia are NATO leaders in counter Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) warfare, which provides options for potential routes the bilateral relationship could take. Czechia is one of only a handful of European countries to maintain a CBRN formation of regiment size or larger. This is an area ripe for deeper collaboration. Some degree of joint training and exercising already takes place, albeit infrequently.
Given the need to expand and modernise CBRN capabilities – the British Army’s TPz Fuchs vehicles have received upgrades, but they first entered service in 1990 – and that the two countries are arguably the best at counter-CBRN in Europe, collective procurement could help deepen bilateral ties and reduce costs for equipment which is highly specialised and therefore typically only ordered in small quantities.
If you found this Cable useful, please subscribe or pledge your support!
What do you think about this Cable? Why not leave a comment below?