UK says it will permanently deploy two Royal Navy warships in Asian waters

Britain on July 20, announced that it would permanently deploy two Royal Navy warships in Asia after its Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier arrives in Japan in September. According to a press release, during a two-day visit to Japan, Britain's Defence Minister Ben Wallace met his Japanese counterpart Nobuo Kishi and Japan’s PM Yoshihide Suga, and reaffirmed London and Tokyo’s shared values and close partnership in defence and security. Wallace confirmed that HMS Queen Elizabeth and her escort fleet will transit international waters claimed by China next month, saying Britain had a “duty” to insist on freedom of navigation.

“Following on from the Carrier Strike Group’s inaugural deployment, the UK will permanently assign two offshore patrol vessels to the Indo-Pacific region from later this year,” Wallace added. 

UK to contribute LRG in coming years

Plans for the high-profile visit by the carrier leading a Royal Navy flotilla come as London deepens security ties with Tokyo, which has expressed growing alarm in recent months over China's territorial ambitions in the region. As per the press note, during his meeting with PM Suga, Wallace emphasised the UK and Japan’s common strategic interests, their commitment to stability in the region and a free and open Indo-Pacific. He also informed that the UK will even contribute a Littoral Response Group (LRG) in the coming years, thereby demonstrating Britain’s commitment to collective defence and security in the region in the decades ahead.

Wallace said, “The UK’s defence relationship with Japan is the closest it has been in the last century”. 

He added, “Following exercises with the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force in the Gulf of Aden and in the waters off Japan, the upcoming visit of the UK-led Carrier Strike Group to five ports across the country is a clear demonstration of our commitment to maintaining regional security and upholding the rules-based international order with Japan”. 

It is worth noting that the British carrier, which is carrying F-35 stealth jets, will dock at Yokosuka, the home of Japan's fleet command and the US Navy Seventh Fleet's carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan. The Royal Navy ships will not have a permanent base, a spokesperson at the British embassy in Tokyo said when asked which ports the Royal Navy ships would operate from. Queen Elizabeth HMS, on the other hand, is being escorted by two destroyers, two frigates, two support vessels and ships from the United States and the Netherlands.

(Image: Twitter/AP)