In a nutshell:
- The UK threatens to tear up its defence alliance with the US after Trump’s Iran crisis triggers a rupture between the two countries.
- UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace says that the UK is looking to forge stronger alliances with other international partners which share its priorities.
- He says the US risks “[withdrawing] from its leadership” of the world under Trump.
- Wallace also reveals Trump threatened to tear up its intelligence-sharing relationship with the UK.
“I worry if the United States withdraws from its leadership around the world,” Mr Wallace told the Sunday Times . “That would be bad for the world and bad for us. We plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
“Over the last year we’ve had the US pull out from Syria, the statement by Donald Trump on Iraq where he said Nato should take over and do more in the Middle East,” Mr Wallace said.
“The assumptions of 2010 that we were always going to be part of a US coalition is really just not where we are going to be.
“We are very dependent on American air cover and American intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets. We need to diversify our assets.”
BBC:
Request submitted by, PC Commentary.
