In London last week, the First Sea Lord (the ancient title still accorded to the commanding officer of the Royal Navy) hosted the annual Sea Power Conference – Britain’s principal annual gathering at which navy chiefs from around the world meet with policymakers, scholars and industry leaders to discuss strategic issues of common concern to the democracies. The maritime domain is something that Britain understands deeply. Until it was overtaken by the United States in the middle of the last century, it was for centuries the largest naval power the world had ever seen. It still has the largest navy of all the European democracies and the second largest in NATO.

Japanese destroyers with US and British carriers pictured during operations in the Philippine Sea in 2021.Credit: AP

Predictably, of the topics discussed, the two which featured most prominently were the Ukraine War and the rise of China. It is often overlooked that the Ukraine War is a sea war as well as a land one; one-third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has been either sunk or disabled since the conflict began. Meanwhile, the relentless rise of China is, from a military perspective, primarily the story of the expansion of Chinese naval power. It is estimated that the People’s Liberation Army Navy will reach a complement of 400 major vessels (surface and submarine) by 2026.

A great deal of the discussion focused on AUKUS. However, Australia was barely in the room. Inexcusably, not a single officer of our Navy had bothered to travel from Canberra to attend our AUKUS partner’s........

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