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The Pentagon wants the UK Army to focus more on Europe and less on Asia, on a large shift of policies from the Biden administration, which led European allies to increase activity in the Indo-Religion to send a strong signal to China.
Elbridge Colby, secretary of policy protection in the US, has told British officials that the Trump administration believes the UK army should increase its concentration in the Euro-Atlantic region, according to the five people.
Colby, the third highest official in the Pentagon, has also expressed concern for London sending the carrier of its HMS Prince of Wales aircraft in a placement that will include time in the Indo-Record.
He has long argued that European nations should take more responsibility for security in their region-especially regarding the Ukraine war-to liberate the US military to focus more on China and Indo-Pacific.
The impetus marks an 180 degree pivot by the Biden administration, which argued that an expanded European military presence in Asia would help counteract the aggressive Chinese military activity in the region and could help prevent President Xi Jinping from deciding to attack Taiwan.
In recent years, European countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Netherlands, have sailed warships across the South China Sea for opposition from Beijing. In 2021, the Pentagon welcomed the “historical” deployment of Queen Elizabeth’s aircraft carrier of the United Kingdom in Indo-Pacific.
Pushing Europe to do more in the Pacific, Kurt Campbell, Tsar of the White House in the first half of the Biden administration, had argued that the Atlantic and Pacific theaters were connected.
“This decision suggests that the Trump administration will try to remove both, which can leave allies in both regions most concerned about the prospects of continued US regional engagement,” said Zack Cooper, a security expert in Asia at the US Institute of Enterprises.
The new policy comes as Beijing has increased an offensive attack with Europe in an effort to return US previous efforts to register European countries to fight China.
A person known to the issue said that the United Kingdom “had always been active across the globe, including close cooperation with the Euro-Atlantic advantage, but you will” take care of its own interests, as well as partnerships all over the world, the Middle East or the Indo-Pacific “.
While US military officers generally estimate that they have more of a European military presence in the Pacific, the Trump administration civil policy team in the Pentagon wants countries to focus more on their home regions.
Colby said this week it was “essential” for Europe to increase protection costs to 5 percent of GDP. As part of his push for countries to increase investment in defense, he recently told Congress Japan should spend more than 2 percent planned planned and said Taiwan should spend 10 percent.
“European military power remains limited if it does not extend, so it is natural that the Trump administration would like to see it focused on the European subcontinent and the threat of Russia (on the contrary) than to spread in detail in Asia or elsewhere,” said Eric Sayers, a Beacon Global Strategies expert. “Establishing maritime peace diplomacy in other regions is a luxury that I simply do not believe that Europe can allow these days.”
But critics say increased cooperation between Iran, Russia, North and China means that the US should seek help from allies outside their regions.
“The European theaters of the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific have always been deeply interconnected,” said one official from an Indo-Pacific country. “But today security is more inseparable than ever-not just because of the reappearance of a powerful global axis of authoritarian revisionist powers.”
The British Ministry of Defense said it was “working closely with our US allies and Indo-Indo-people in setting up our Carre Strike group with the HMS Prince of Wales due to the behavior exercises later this year.”
The Pentagon refused to comment.
