There are further reports today about possible UK activity against ISIL, as well as widespread coverage of the death of a Royal Marine trainee and the inquest into the death of soldiers on SAS selection.
Ash Carter/Defence Secretary on UK spending
Comments made by US Defence Secretary Ash Carter during an interview with BBC World News America at the Shangri-La Dialogue this weekend were highlighted on today’s BBC Breakfast (0635) and BBC R4 Today. Mr Carter said that Britain risks becoming disengaged from world affairs if it cuts spending on its Armed Forces and that Britain, like all other countries, should continue to meet the 2% defence spending target. Mr Carter said: “It would be a great loss to the world when a country that has done so much would consider actions that seem to indicate disengagement.”
Continuing with the theme, the Daily Telegraph reports that Poland has responded to Russia’s belligerence by raising its defence budget by 18%. The article says that Poland is likely to move up to the 2% target as Britain was expected to fall below that for the first.
In an interview also conducted during the Shangri-La dialogue, The Times reports that the Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said he refused to accept that the MOD would have to necessarily make cuts. Mr Fallon said: ‘My job is to make sure that the Armed Forces have what they need to keep Britain safe. That’s what I’ll be negotiating with the Chancellor.’ Our position on Defence Spending has been set out in recent days and can be found here.
ISIL
During the Shangri-La dialogue, Ash Carter also said that the execution of strategy in Iraq is troubling, that the US/coalition can defeat ISIL but can’t keep them defeated, and that the coalition could do a better job of helping the Iraqi forces.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Sam Kiley on Sky News General John Allen said the coalition had learnt lessons about ISIL after the group seized the city Ramadi last month. Also highlighted includes the special envoy to the coalition against ISIL and former US Marine General will head the American delegation to a special conference of leading members of the coalition in Paris on Tuesday. On Syria he said there was no strategy for dealing with the regime of Bashar al Assad, only a "policy".
Speaking to the BBC, ex-CIA Director David Petraeus said that ISIL militants can only be defeated through a dual military and political approach. He said ‘Industrial-strength’ extremists cannot be dealt with ‘just with force of arms’.
SAS inquest/RM death
BBC Breakfast, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror are among many of the outlets reporting today’s beginning of the inquest into the death of three soldiers undergoing SAS selection tests in Wales in 2013. The Telegraph reports that the soldiers were close to the finishing line when they succumbed to heat exhaustion on one of the hottest days of the year.
The BBC’s defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said that a key area of interest, juxtaposed against the requirement to push entrants to their physical limits for the elite force, would be the ‘right to life’ considerations under human rights legislation.
Meanwhile, a number of outlets, including the Daily Mail, follow yesterday’s Western Morning News report that a junior Royal Marine officer died on Thursday during the 30-mile qualifying training run on Dartmoor.
An MOD spokesperson said:
This incident is being investigated and the thoughts and sympathies of the Naval service are with the family and friends of this man.
Russia travel ban
A number of today’s papers, including The Guardian all follow-up yesterday’s reporting about the Russian travel ban which has been disclosed as applying to 89 western public figures, including Minister for Defence Procurement Philip Dunne and Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Houghton. The Foreign Office’s position was laid out in yesterday’s blog and can be read here.
