UK defence review acknowledges India's role on global stage and Indian Ocean

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

Britain is developing the bilateral defence relationship with India, including in the Indian Ocean region, in view of the latter's role on the global stage, according to the UK government's radical defence overhaul to meet new challenges and threats.
The UK's Strategic Defence Review 2025, unveiled late on Monday, sets out the growing threats faced by Britain, including from China, which the report said is 'increasingly leveraging its economic, technological, and military capabilities' to establish dominance in the Indo-Pacific and erode US influence.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has pledged the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War, commissioned the defence review soon after he was elected last July in order to formulate a plan for the next 10 years.
'Recognising the role that India plays on the global stage, the UK continues to develop the bilateral defence relationship across a range of shared interests, including in the Indian Ocean region and through capability cooperation,' the report said in its section on the UK's global partners.
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The announcement of the UK-India Defence Partnership in February 2025 'represents an important next step for bilateral defence cooperation, focusing on next-generation weapons in the critical area of air defence'.
Defence and security cooperation is one of the five pillars of the India-UK 2030 Vision that was finalised in May 2021 and envisages the two countries working together to strengthen efforts to tackle cyber, space, crime and terrorist threats and develop a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific. The 2030 Vision also envisages enhanced maritime cooperation and joint exercises, and defence industry collaboration to develop new capabilities and technologies.
The UK's defence review made a passing mention of the relationship with Pakistan, describing it as 'historic' and 'with a shared focus on security objectives'.
The defence review acknowledged the challenge posed to Britain by China, saying that it is 'increasingly leveraging its economic, technological, and military capabilities, seeking to establish dominance in the Indo-Pacific, erode US influence, and put pressure on the rules-based international order'.
China has 'embarked on large-scale, extraordinarily rapid military modernisation', including a 'vast increase in advanced platforms and weapons systems, such as space warfare capabilities', an unprecedented diversification and growth of its conventional and nuclear missile forces, with missiles that can reach the UK and Europe, and more types and 'greater numbers of nuclear weapons than ever before, with its arsenal expected to double to 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030'.
In the context of the Indo-Pacific region, the defence review said that 'growing Chinese assertiveness is a key driver of regional and global instability'. China's military exercises around Taiwan 'risk dangerous escalation in the Taiwan Strait', while its 'aggressive actions are fuelling tension in the South China Sea'.
Chinese technology and its proliferation to other countries was described as a 'leading challenge for the UK', with the country's defence 'likely to face Chinese technology wherever and with whomever it fights'.
China is also 'likely to continue seeking advantage through espionage and cyber-attacks, and through securing cutting-edge Intellectual Property through legitimate and illegitimate means', the defence review said.
The defence review also described the growing links between Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea as a factor that complicates 'calculations of deterrence and escalation management across regions'.