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Opinion | Britain’s delusions of grandeur increase risk of armed conflict
- Going to the edge and risking world peace is a prerogative of a superpower – not a middle power like Britain
- Russia and China will show much less tolerance for Royal Navy incursions into what they believe to be their waters than for the much more powerful US Navy
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Last month, the British Royal Navy’s HMS Defender got into an unpleasant encounter with the Russian military off the coast of Crimea as it was sailing through the Black Sea. The Russians reportedly fired warning shots, and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of the Defender. Fortunately, the incident ended without a scratch.
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Britain never hid the intention behind the voyage. It does not recognise the Russian annexation of Crimea and therefore it is “wholly appropriate” for it to sail in what it believes to be Ukrainian waters, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. Britain is “sticking up for our values”.
The foray into the Black Sea was not about the right of “innocent passage”. It was a provocation. Why else would there be a BBC television camera crew and a Daily Mail reporter on board the Defender if not for showing the British people how their government is standing up to Russia?
Now a potentially bigger crisis is looming on the horizon, this time involving China. The British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth accompanied by two destroyers – the Defender being one of them – two frigates, a nuclear-powered submarine, a tanker and a logistics ship are making their way to the South China Sea to “stick up for British values” in one of the world’s most contested waterways.
Hopefully this excursion will also end without harm. But what if it doesn’t? What if, intentionally or by miscalculation, British and Chinese vessels collide, a ship is sunk, a plane is downed or a sailor drowns? What will Johnson do then? Declare war on China?
02:26
Britain’s new aircraft carrier joins Nato exercises ahead of Indo-Pacific voyage
Britain’s new aircraft carrier joins Nato exercises ahead of Indo-Pacific voyage
Will Nato invoke Article 5, which states that an armed attack against a member shall be considered an attack against them all, when the alliance does not even have an Indo-Pacific doctrine in place?
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