Britain’s Navy chief: Chinese could sail into the Atlantic
Arctic route opens as ice caps melt
sEa routes newly opened up in the arctic could be exploited by an ‘increasingly assertive’ China, the head of the Royal Navy warned yesterday.
admiral Tony Radakin, the First sea Lord, said China’s ‘growing’ navy could reach the North atlantic via the arctic using a route created by global heating.
‘Climate change is a concern for all of us but it is opening up new maritime trade routes across the top of the world, halving the transit time between Europe and asia. and we sit at the gateway to those routes,’ admiral Radakin said in a speech yesterday onboard the new HMs Prince of Wales in Portsmouth.
‘But when China sails its growing navy into the atlantic, which way will it come – the long route or the short?’
The Northern sea Route – which is above the UK and runs the length of Russia – has become passable for ships during august, september and October as the ice caps melt as a result of climate change.
it is believed to be around ten to 12 sailing days faster than traditional routes but there are concerns that China and Russia will exploit this new route in the High North leading to more competition.
admiral Radakin said: ‘Trade routes are going to open up. That’s significant. if you can halve the time for a container to travel from asia to Europe, then that’s an amazing opportunity.
‘The world is getting more competitive, more contested. We will have to play our role in that world. as the High North becomes more open and accessible, it’s going to be more contested and competitive as well.’
He also warned of a growing Russian threat, as he added: ‘These routes skirt the coast of that resurgent Russia. a Russia that is now more active in the atlantic – our backyard – than it has been for over 30 years.’
The admiral said these routes were part of an £8trillion global maritime trade network – ‘the veins and arteries along which the lifeblood of the world’s economy flows’.
He also stressed the importance of i nternational l aws around free trade, warning that ‘there are those that would threaten this concept’.
He added: ‘and this is why the Royal Navy is constantly on watch around the world for everyone. Upholding those freedoms, protecting trade, enforcing those rules.’
admiral Radakin said the Navy was already working more in the High North.
He added: ‘you saw a couple of months ago, we’ve been operating with our Norwegian friends, with our american friends and in the Barents sea.
‘That’s one of a series of operations. We will be looking in the High North, as we do in the atlantic and elsewhere in the world, to join with our partners.’
There are also concerns that as cruise ships use the route more and more, they could get into difficulty in what a Navy source said was a ‘dangerous and environmentally challenged part of the world’. admiral
Radakin also warned of undersea cables being threatened by adversaries.
He said that 97 per cent of the world’s data travels on the cables and this information could include private emails, stock exchange trades, medical research, computer games or even television programmes.
as a result, he said the Government was committed to developing new capabilities to protect these cables, such as using intelligence and surveillance assets.
He said: ‘The Government is committed to developing new capabilities to protect those cables, standing up to this threat on behalf of everyone.’
The head of the Navy also said the Royal Marines would be ‘ reinvented’ and during his speech, the troops showcased their latest kit such as state-ofthe-art drones.
The Royal Navy is also ‘ruthlessly driving down bureaucracy’ by shrinking its headquarters by 40 per cent. This will lead to fewer admirals but more people on the frontline.
‘Standing up to this threat’ ‘More competitive’