Britain has launched its biggest deployment of UK naval and aerial
military firepower since the 1982 Falklands War. The massive deployment
is headed toward
the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and Asia Pacific regions. The
aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth
is heading a carrier strike group (UK Carrier Strike Group 21, also
known
as Operation Fortis) that departed on a 28-week mission on May 24. It
is a NATO-backed mission, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said.
Its purpose, he said, is for the UK to
"[project] our influence, [signal] our power." More specifically, the
Ministry of Defence states that the deployment is part of the "UK's
tilt to the Indo-Pacific region" which it claims is to
"bolster deep defence partnerships" in the region.
The
Carrier Strike Group includes a squadron of 10 U.S. Marine Corps F-35
jets, an attack submarine armed with Tomahawk missiles, two
destroyers, a number of other battleships and the greatest quantity of
helicopters assigned to a single UK Task Group in a decade. The strike
group will stop at more than 100 ports in over 40 countries for more
than 70 engagements. The last leg of the voyage will take the strike
group into the South China Sea, close to Taiwan and end with military
exercises with
Japan.
In May, prior to its departure for Asia, the
Carrier
Strike Group 21 took part in massive war games dubbed "Exercise Strike
Warrior" in the waters off northwest Scotland. At that time,
the Defence Secretary claimed: "When our Carrier Strike Group sets sail
next month, it will be flying the flag for Global Britain -- projecting
our influence, signalling our power, engaging
with our friends and reaffirming our commitment to addressing the
security challenges of today and tomorrow ... the UK is not stepping
back but sailing forth to play an active role in
shaping the international system of the 21st Century."
The
Carrier Strike Group 21 was deployed in the lead-up to the G7
meeting hosted by Britain, which Britain claimed to be "the most
prominent group of
democratic countries." Sending a battle fleet to Asia for the first
time since the start of the Korean War in 1950, giving its support to
NATO operations in the Black Sea and entering
the South China Sea to bolster U.S. provocations there are unmistakably
dangerous military provocations. "Flying the flag of Global Britain" is
a desperate crisis-ridden policy according to
which military spending and war preparations can succeed in imposing
the so-called shared values of the imperialist democracies onto the
peoples of Asia. This will not be the case. Already, the
wars of the 20th century have proven that it is not military might
which prevails but the peoples united behind the cause of humankind for
freedom, democracy, peace and justice.
Protest at G-7 summit in Cornwall, June 12, 2021
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 14 - June 13, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/MS51144.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
