Bad news for Russian submarines: Starmer is a savvy salesman
The agreement under which the UK will supply Norway with at least five warships over the coming decade gives every appearance of being a win-win outcome. Type 26 frigates will significantly reinforce the ability of the Royal Norwegian Navy to protect a country with major maritime interests – all of Norway’s oilfields, the source of much of its considerable wealth, are offshore. By way of demonstrating that the threat is not theoretical, this week British, Norwegian and US forces have been pursuing a Russian submarine in the North Sea to discourage any funny ideas about it interfering with an exercise involving the US aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford. One of the primary attractions of the Type 26 is its capacity to hunt subs.
For the UK, the deal is the biggest export order it has ever received for warships – £10bn (€11.5bn). According to the government’s estimates, it will create or protect some 4,000 jobs, including 2,000 at the BAE Systems shipyard in Glasgow where the frigates will be built, with knock-on benefits to hundreds of other UK businesses. There might be more where that came from: Canada and Australia are already buying the Type 26 and interest has been expressed by New Zealand, Brazil and Malaysia. The deal also represents a vote of confidence in British manufacturing: Norway could have bought from France, Germany or the US.
Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre said that two questions had shaped his country’s thinking: “Who is our most strategic partner? And who has delivered the best frigates?” The answer to both was, apparently, the United Kingdom.
His first question is more illuminating. Norway and the UK share an interest in the security of the North Sea oilfields, so there’s that. The Royal Navy has already ordered eight Type 26s and the concept of interoperability has become an increasing preoccupation of European countries as they realise that it makes sense to share kit in the face of a shared menace. UK defence secretary John Healey has said he anticipates that the British and Norwegian navies “will work as one”.
But since Brexit was finalised in 2020, what Norway and the UK have had in common is that they are European members of Nato but are not members of the EU (this also applies to Iceland and Turkey but the former doesn’t have a military and the latter no North Sea shoreline). Though there is little prospect of the UK rejoining the EU, this deal demonstrates the country’s commitment to the defence of the continent. Norway, which has a land border with Russia in its high north, has never had the luxury of leaving any doubt about this.
The deal is a triumph for UK prime minister Keir Starmer. Despite coming across as a somewhat hesitant statesman, he has proven an impressively pushy salesman. Visiting Oslo in May for a meeting about a possible Joint Expeditionary Force for Ukraine (dubbed a “coalition of the willing”), Starmer met Støre aboard a Norwegian Coast Guard patrol boat and went as close as an often reserved politician might get to a car-dealer forecourt apex predator. The UK’s relationship with Norway, effused Starmer, “has been historically close, particularly on defence, and is in the strongest position it has been, probably ever.”
And while this is all good news for the UK, Norway and Europe, the much more important thing is that it’s bad news for Russian submarines.
Andrew Mueller is a contributing editor at Monocle and host of ‘The Foreign Desk’. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.
