Throughout an episode of the Lord Speaker’s podcast, Lord West delivered an prolonged warning that the UK now sits inside what he known as an undeclared battle with Russia, arguing that the size and persistence of Moscow’s hostile exercise locations Europe in a precarious strategic place.
He mentioned, “It’s extraordinary that we’re on this gray zone warfare now. I imply, successfully we’re at battle with Russia.” He pointed to persistent makes an attempt to probe undersea infrastructure, the arrival of Russian-linked drones, and elevated navy strain within the Arctic.
In accordance with him, “the massive strain they’re placing up within the Arctic area… is inflicting actual issues for the Scandinavian nations, which is why Norway purchased a few of our frigates and may be very concerned with us.”
West pressured that the scenario is each unstable and troublesome to unwind. “It’s fairly troublesome to see how one’s going to get out of this as a result of one doesn’t desire a full battle between NATO and Russia. They might lose it. And the hazard with them dropping it’s would they then make that silly mistake of going nuclear?” He mentioned that risk hangs over any state of affairs the place Moscow perceives existential defeat.
He framed the broader confrontation as a continuation of miscalculations in Ukraine. “Thank goodness we’re supporting Ukraine. Putin made a significant error there,” he mentioned. West argued that China’s management recognises the size of that misstep, recalling that Putin assured Xi Jinping the battle could be a brief operation. “He mentioned, ‘Effectively, I’m doing a particular operation. It’ll go on for 3 weeks.’ Effectively, it hasn’t, has it? He’s fully made a significant, main strategic blunder.”
Regardless of this, West famous China stays prepared to help Russia in restricted methods, which he tied to long-running geopolitical patterns. “The Chinese language can spot that, though sadly they’re nonetheless prepared to help him. And once more, these hyperlinks and linkages, they arrive out over time, years and years of working and working.”
He additionally positioned present tensions in an extended historic arc, contrasting the current along with his experiences through the withdrawal from Hong Kong within the late Nineteen Nineties. He described Chinese language naval behaviour on the time as confrontational and recalled later visits as Chief of Defence Intelligence the place surveillance was so overt his spouse joked “Good night time everybody” when the lights went out.