EU ‘must back UK’ in curbing China’s sea power
THE deployment of one of Britain’s new aircraft carriers to east Asia next year would send a “clear signal” that Europe is ready to counter Chinese expansionist policies in the Indo-pacific, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Nato secretary-general, has told The Daily Telegraph.
In July it was reported that the UK’S military chiefs were considering plans to base the £3.1 billion HMS Queen Elizabeth in Asia, where i t could conduct naval exercises with allies including the United States and Japan.
Mr Rasmussen, who served as Nato chief from 2009 to 2014 and as Danish prime minister from 2001 to 2009, believes that the UK could raise the bar for a more robust European presence in the Indo-pacific if it were to deploy to the region. He urged European nations to support regional allies with more freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, where it is feared an increasingly assertive Beijing may try to
control access to key shipping routes. “The UK has stepped up its efforts and that should be followed by other major European states,” he said, advocating the coordination of a wide coalition of democracies to challenge the strategic economic and military threats of a rising Communist China. The major European nations should contribute, and it should be discussed within the EU to elaborate and pursue a common European cause,” he added.
“This signals to China that China cannot continue their divide-and-rule approach and try to split Europe when it comes to a Chinese approach. We are in this together and we are in this together with the US and the major Asian countries – Japan, India, and I would add to that also Australia.”
Mr Rasmussen, who now runs Rasmussen Global, a political and security consultancy, believes China’s more aggressive foreign policy under Xi Jinping, its president, requires a shift to a more robust EU response. “Europeans should take more responsibility for security, not only our own but security around the world,” he said.