UK to deploy carrier strike group to north Atlantic, Starmer announces

The United Kingdom will deploy its carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and High North region this year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced at the Munich Security Conference.

As Starmer insisted the UK would honour its NATO commitment to defend allies if called upon, he confirmed that the carrier strike group would operate alongside the United States and Canada during the deployment, The National writes. 

The aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales will lead the group. The vessel previously led the UK Carrier Strike Group in a series of operations and exercises, including a port visit to Japan last year, during which it loaded ammunition in Scotland.

Addressing the conference, Starmer said: “I can announce today that the UK will deploy our carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and the High North this year, led by HMS Prince of Wales, operating alongside the US, Canada and other Nato allies in a powerful show of our commitment to Euro-Atlantic security.”

The announcement comes after U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year asserted that he wants the United States to take over Greenland. Trump has claimed he does not believe Denmark — of which Greenland is a territory — does enough to defend it from threats posed by Russia and China.

European nations rallied behind Denmark amid suggestions that the United States could seek to annex Greenland.

In his speech, the Prime Minister told the conference hall: “Now we feel the solidity of peace, the very ground that we stand on softening under our feet.

“It’s the job of leaders to be ahead of these seismic shapes, yet that is against the grain of history.”

He said leaders must not dither as “Russia has proved its appetite for aggression”.

He continued that after a peace deal for Ukraine, “Russia’s rearmament would only accelerate” and “we must answer this threat in full”.

By Sabina Mammadli