Former commander of the Joint Forces Command, General Sir Richard Barrons, has warned the UK should begin to worry about the future of its defence if Donald Trump decides not to put forward a candidate for the position of Supreme Allied Commander of Europe.
General Barrons, who recently submitted a Strategic Defence Review to the Government, issued the warning in a conversation with Times Radio in which he discussed the potential future problems the UK could face with an increasingly isolationist American military.
He told the broadcaster that there was “a rumour that perhaps the US wouldn’t replace the American General who is the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe and perhaps to allow that to be filled by a European”. The current Supreme Allied Commander (SACEUR) is General Christopher G Cavoli, he has been in post since July 4, 2022.
The impact of this decision, warned General Sir Richard, would be to be show beyond reasonable doubt that America was pulling away from Europe as Trump’s increasingly pro-Russia administration pulled away the military safety blanket that it has wrapped around Europe for over 80 years.
General Sir Richard said: “That would be totemic because that is the clearest possible signal of the US potentially disconnecting from leading European defence and leading NATO and we should be really concerned.”
The experienced military commander explained also that there was facet of the whole American defence review that people often got wrong, and that it was not that Europe and the UK don’t have the money to defence themselves, but that they simply haven’t chosen to spend it.
This, in large part, has been driven by the aforementioned American military safety blanket and the effect of a post-Cold War high that saw governments deprioritise military spending on the basis that they didn’t really think war would be coming any time soon.
However, the war in Ukraine and Trump’s determination to force Ukraine into an uncomfortable peace regardless of the fact it was the invaded rather than the invading party, has forced Europe to recalibrate, so much so that it has launched it’s own €150Bn rearmament fund.
This rearmament fund, whilst obviously excluding the USA, has also excluded the UK and Turkey unless the three nations each sign defence and security agreements with the government in Brussels.
This has come as a surprise to UK officials, especially since the UK government, under both the Tories and now Labour, has been at the tip of spear for campaigning for greater military unity.
In response to the exclusion, one senior defence industry insider told the Financial Times: “We see a huge amount of opportunity and it’s right the UK is seen as part of Europe. But if the EU – and especially France – is going to be transactional about this, it undermines the entire philosophy of a joint and unified Europe in defence and security terms.”
Despite the current impasse over the rearmament fund, UK and EU officials are working together to see if a compromise can be reached with the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affaris Kaja Kalllas meeting the UK’s Foreign and Defence Secretaries, David Lammy and John Healey, earlier this week to discuss the matter ahead of an EU-UK summit in May.
Kallas said the EU was “working on having this defence and security partnership with the UK…I am really hoping that for the summit…we can have results…the understanding that we need to do more and do it together is there”.
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