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The Pentagon has urged British forces to boost European allies’ activities in the Indo-Pacific and send a strong signal to China in key policy changes from the Biden administration.
Elbridge Colby, the Defense Director for U.S. Policy, told British officials that five people familiar with the issue said the Trump administration believes the British military should focus on the Euro-Atlantic region.
Colby, the third-highest official of the Pentagon, has expressed concern that London will send the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carriers to deployments that include Indo-Pacific time.
He has long argued that European countries should take more responsibility for the security of their regions, particularly in connection with the war in Ukraine.
The push shows a 180-degree pivot from the Biden administration. This argued that strengthening European military presence in Asia would help counter active Chinese military activities in the region and help prevent President Xi from making a decision to attack Taiwan.
US Secretaries of Defense Pete Hegses and Elbridge Colby to Defence School for Policy ©AFP/Getty Images
In recent years, European countries, including the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands, have sailed warships through the South China Sea over objections from Beijing. In 2021, the Pentagon welcomed the “historic” deployment of British Elizabeth Airlines into the Indo-Pacific.
In trying to make Europe do more in the Pacific Ocean, White House Indo-Pacific Emperor Kurt Campbell in the first half of the Biden administration claimed that Atlantic and Pacific theatres were linked.
“The decision suggests that the Trump administration will try to remove the two, and allies in both regions may be more concerned about the outlook for continuing US regional involvement.”
New policies arise as Beijing attempts to reverse previous US efforts to register European countries to counter China, and Beijing has stepped up its attractive attacks with Europe.
Those familiar with the issue said that the UK was “always active all over the world, including working closely with the US on Euro-Atlantic priorities,” but “it takes care of its own interests and partnerships, whether in Europe, the Middle East or the Indo-Pacific, as well as partnerships around the world.”
US military officers generally appreciate the increased presence of European military forces in the Pacific, but the Trump administration’s civil policy team in the Pentagon wants countries to concentrate in more regions.
This week Colby said that the “key” is for Europe to increase defensive spending to 5% of GDP. As part of pushing the nation to increase investment in defense, he recently said that Japan should spend more than 2% of its planned targets, while Taiwan should spend 10%.
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“European military power remains limited unless it is stretched, so it’s only natural that we’d like to see the Trump administration focus on the threats of the European subcontinent and Russia. [rather] said Eric Sayers, Asian security expert at Beacon Global Strategy.
However, critics say the growing cooperation between Iran, Russia, North Korea and China should help the US seek help from allies outside the region.
“Theatres in Europe, the Middle East and Indo-Pacific have always been deeply interconnected,” said an official from Indo-Pacific countries. “But today’s security is more inseparable than ever, especially as the re-emergence of a powerful global axis of authoritarian revisionist power.”
The UK Department of Defense said it is “working closely with US and Indo-Pacific allies on the deployment of a career strike group with the HMS Prince of Wales for the purpose of implementing it later this year.”
The pentagon declined to comment.
