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13/05/2014 | As US Pivots To Asia, UK Steps Back To Middle East – Analysis

Monish Gulati

Work has started recently on the expansion of UK Maritime Component Command (UKMCC) complex in Juffair district of Bahrain at a cost of a BD6.3 million ($16.6 million).

 

The UKMCC complex, within Bahrain’s Salman Naval Base, is the British maritime forces’ biggest investment (£5.8m) on foreign soil and is being built with money procured through Foreign Military Sales. British Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Mark Francois had attended the official ground-breaking ceremony of the new headquarters.

At a time of economic retrenchment and when cutback and rollback on everything, including defence production and acquisition is the norm, UK’s desire to project itself ‘east of Suez’ seems a wee bit out of place. The British case for enhanced presence of its military forces rests on the “value the training areas, access to the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, and the benefits of collaboration with Gulf forces, it would bring”. The force presence would also “lean on” Iran, while to others convey UK’s concerns on security issues arising in the Gulf. The move is also viewed by some analysts as “a new geopolitical expression of the US-UK special relationship”. This article examines the British “revisit” to the Middle East for its strategic content.

UKMCC

The UKMCC is responsible for Royal Navy (RN) warships, aircraft and personnel deployed in the Middle East maritime theatre. Based in Bahrain, the UKMCC consists of a Royal Navy Commodore and a staff of around 60 personnel. They carry out a wide range of roles, covering operations, logistics and intelligence, together with providing specialist advice in legal, media, medical and diplomatic affairs. Though the original maritime headquarters was built in 2001, the RN has maintained a continuous presence in the Gulf since the inauguration of the Armilla Patrol in 1979, and is the second biggest Western maritime force stationed in Bahrain after the US.

Bahrain has the distinction of being the only base outside UK home waters to host such a concentration of the RN around the clock 365 days a year, which also renders support to wider international security missions in the region. There are four mine hunters permanently based at the port, plus one Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) mother ship, while generally two frigates or destroyers are in the Gulf and Indian Ocean on a mix of maritime security duties concerning piracy, smuggling, human trafficking and terrorism. The Bahrain project has a 30-year design life and comprises a new headquarters and an engineering and logistics facility; both buildings are due to be completed by July 2015. The engineering and logistics facility will house the Forward Support Unit, which looks after all the needs of RN ships based or visiting Bahrain.

Assessment

Britain had maintained a significant military presence throughout the Gulf until 1971, after which its withdrawal from the region created a security vacuum that saw the US step in. In 1979 the Armilla Patrol was established to ensure the safety of British shipping in the Persian/Arabian Gulf and was also responsible for maintaining a British presence in the region. Since 2006 as part of Operation Oracle, UK’s contribution to the War on Terror, a single warship and supporting RFA vessels are on-station at-notice for deployments anywhere East of Suez. The permanent RN presence in the Far East and Pacific regions has not been maintained, though the RN regularly deploys ships for task specific operations or as part of the Five Powers Defence Arrangements (FPDA).

On Oct 11, 2012, UK signed a defence cooperation agreement with Bahrain leading up to a more permanent and larger UK presence ‘East of Suez’. The agreement provides a framework for the current and future defence engagement activity, including training and capacity building, to enhance the stability of the wider region. The UKMCC underscores the UK’s continuing and enduring commitment to Bahrain and the wider region and puts out a clear statement that it is going to be here for a significant period of time as its biggest operational theatre outside of the UK. Notwithstanding the charter of UKMCC, two key developments appear to have driven the enhancement of the UKMCC: reduced US dependence on energy imports from the Gulf and its pivot to East Asia.

Energy Security

Qatar is the prime supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the UK. In 2012, the UK imported over £400 million worth of crude oil from the Middle East. In the same year almost 30% of the UK gas imports came by sea, as LNG, more than 97% came from Qatar and Egypt. As demand in the country rises over the next decade, and as storage capacity increases, Qatar’s importance as an LNG trading partner is set to increase.

UK shares the responsibility of securing its energy supplies with its EU partner, France. In May 2009, then French president Nicolas Sarkozy opened French naval, air and army facilities in Abu Dhabi. The bases are the first permanent French military installations to be built outside French territory since the process of decolonization began more than half a century ago. France’s main military base serving the Gulf region is in Djibouti.

US Pivot

As part of its pivot to Asia, the US over a period of time would deploy 60 percent of its naval assets in East Asia and the Pacific. In response and in concert, the UK is revisiting its role in the Middle East and the Gulf in particular. There are already indicators in this regard from the rather proactive British diplomatic posture towards Iran: reopening of its diplomatic mission and its keenness to establish business relations. As an analyst put it, there is a “slow transformation in the UK military posture towards a tentative return to the pre-1971 strategy”; albeit in support of the US pivot.

The Royal Navy is also preparing to expand operations in Qatar with outlying anchor in Oman. The RAF is set to use the Al-Minhad air base in Dubai (currently used extensively in the logistics chain between the UK and Afghanistan) as a hub not only for the 2014 drawdown in Afghanistan, but as an overseas base of significant capability in the future.

UK’s deployment to the Gulf region brings clear advantage, in being a quick dash to the eastern Mediterranean and halfway to the Far East. It also places the British (where they like to be), at the forefront of inter-operability with US forces. In the words of Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent (retd), the Royal Navy has moved on from “train where we expect to fight” to “deploy where we make the most difference”.

With the impending US deployment at the port of Duqm, Oman, India would note with interest the formation of the Western counter to the Chinese ‘string of Pearls’. It would not only open up options for India, but also make it easier for it to cobble its own regional maritime partnerships, now that the dragon will not have a free run in the Indo-Pacific.

(Monish Gulati is a Senior Research Fellow with the Society for Policy Studies. He can be contacted atm_gulati_2001@yahoo.com )

Eurasia Review (España)

 



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