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U.K. and E.U. Must Forge Relationships to Counter Threats, Experts Say
Russian Navy Kilo-class submarine Novorossiysk. Photo by Yörük Işık used with permission
The “big bad world out there” will drive the United Kingdom and European Union to find ways to build a new foreign policy and defense relationships while both are suffering from economic and trade “teething problems” following Brexit, four leading security experts said Friday.
Speaking at an Atlantic Council online forum, Mark Sedwill, who until last year was the U.K.’s national security advisor, said London was “reluctant to see greater [security] integration through the E.U.” before Brexit, wanting a freer hand to act in what it considered its own interests. So far, bitter economic and trade issues from tariffs to Northern Ireland “are not spilling into foreign policy and security.�
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Top Stories 2020: International Naval Operations
December 30, 2020 12:03 PM
Motor Tanker (M/T) Wila, a merchant vessel in international waters en-route to the UAE port of Khor Fakkan, in the Gulf of Oman, was boarded by armed Iranian personnel who fast roped aboard the ship from an Iranian Sea King helicopter as it hovered above on Aug. 12, 2020. US Navy Photo
This post is part of a series of stories looking back at the
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Like the U.S., international navies grappled with not only the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic but regional security concerns from China’s naval expansion and operations in the Pacific to Iranian and Russian operations in the Middle East.