Speeches by Sandher-Jones.

“The JEF already has good links with Canada. They participated in Exercise Tarassis. That is really helpful and useful. It is important to remember that it is for JEF nations to decide where they would want to take the focus forward, and how that could work with nations like Canada or if other nations were interested. I…”

“I don’t think so. The JEF can cover a range of different types of operations, and it enhance some of the ASW activities that we do—we work closely with a lot of JEF nations on such activities, so it supports that. The JEF is about bringing these nations together, but we are obviously able to pursue different lines at t…”

“I think the JEF is primarily focused on interoperability, training and coalition building. Although in a crisis it might have an operational focus, and I understand that we would perhaps look at how it would work together, it very much focuses on pre-crisis preparation. JFC is one of the operational-level commands that…”

“The JEF is focused on the coalition element. That is interoperability training, working together and focusing on specific interests within Europe that we have a shared focus on. We can see that from the activity that is conducted as part of the JEF—for example, training exercises—that that is really useful and valuable…”

“You will forgive me for not wanting to comment too specifically on operational decisions, and I hope you appreciate why.”

“It brings together a coalition of countries that have shared interests in deepening our co-operation, capability development, training and interoperability. As you know, it was formed in response to the events of 2014, so it has a clear European focus. As I set out at the beginning, we recognise that the High North is …”

“With anti-submarine warfare in general?”

“No, not in terms of the High North versus Baltic.”

“Do you mean specifically nuclear, or conventional as well?”

“If our deterrence is based on capability and our alliances—the strength of how we can work with other countries and interoperate with them—it sends another powerful message that shows how NATO is working together. That co-operation is obviously going to take lots of different forms. It will involve various different NA…”

“I think it is clear that the US is prioritising activity in a way that we have not seen previously, and it is rightly making demands on Europe to step up. The UK has always been a leader within Europe, the north Atlantic and the High North in playing our role, but it is clear that we need to increase that. We can all s…”

“I think it is really well known that the US is publicly calling on European allies to do more, whether we are talking about targets or capabilities. Chris, do you want to come in with a specific comment on capabilities?”

“As you will be aware, we have a really close partnership with Norway in a number of different areas, and that has only deepened following Lunna House. We are having ongoing discussions with Norway about how we can improve our training and support to deliver the capabilities we are trying to, and I know the Norwegians w…”

“Thematically, geographically or both?”

“Thank you very much for inviting me to come here today. I think that this is a really important topic, and there is lots we need to get into. To help set the scene—this will not be news to people here—the role that the High North plays is fundamental to our homeland security and European security and, indeed, across th…”

“I do not believe that the JEF is taking away from anti-submarine warfare operations. We would always like to be able to do more, for certain, but I do not think that the JEF is pulling resources or focus away from that.”

“We are in a period of transition for the Royal Navy. We are looking at getting new capabilities in—obviously, we have announced some of the ones we will get—and it is quite clear that we have significant capability focused on that already. As I am sure you are aware, there are challenges with the availability of some e…”

“We talk about some where we would like to have some platforms, perhaps—I hope you will appreciate why I will not comment individually on which ones should be where. This is a really important aspect of homeland defence and deterrence, and we are sending a strong message about the importance of the High North.”

“You are absolutely right that deterrence is fundamental, and never more so than when we talk about the High North and the Arctic. The foundation of the UK’s deterrence is, of course, our independent UK nuclear deterrent, and we are the only European country to assign it to the defence of NATO. We are well placed to sho…”

“We have supported operations on other ships. It would be very helpful if I could explain to you the operational conditions and decision-making processes as to why we target one ship as opposed to another.”