UK ‘must be prepared to fight wars without US’

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新华社照片,布鲁塞尔,2019年10月25日 (国际)北约国防部长会议在比利时首都布鲁塞尔继续进行 10月25日,在比利时首都布鲁塞尔的北约总部,美国国防部长马克·埃斯珀(前右)与英国国防大臣本·华莱士(前左)出席北约国防部长会议。 为期2天的北约国防部长会议当日在位于比利时首都布鲁塞尔的北约总部继续进行。 新华社记者郑焕松摄 +32(0)496539019 BELGIUM-BRUSSELS-NATO-DEFENCE MINISTERS-SESSION US Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper (R, front) and UK Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace (L, front) attend the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Defence Ministers' session in the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 25, 2019. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

London,  British Foreign Secretary Ben Wallace has warned that the UK must be prepared to fight wars without the US as its key ally, it was reported on Sunday.

“I worry if the US withdraws from its leadership around the world… That would be bad for the world and bad for us. We plan for the worst and hope for the best,” the BBC quoted Wallace as saying to the Sunday Times.

He said the defence review should be used to make the UK less dependent on the US in future conflicts.

“Over the last year we’ve had the US pull out from Syria, the statement by (President) Donald Trump on Iraq where he said NATO should take over and do more in the Middle East,” Wallace said.

“The assumptions of 2010 that we were always going to be part of a US coalition is really just not where we are going to be.

“We are very dependent on American air cover and American intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets. We need to diversify our assets.”

Wallace’s comments come as the UK prepares to carry out the “deepest review” of Britain’s security, defence and foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.