Publication

This primer explains what presence, relations and obligations the UK military has in the largely maritime region between Hawaii, New Zealand and the Asian mainland. Key points include 1) while the UK has held no territory in the Asia-Pacific since 1997, it retains a small standing military presence via a garrison and training base in Brunei; 2) the UK has no mutual defense treaties with Asia-Pacific states but has strong defense relationships with Australia, Brunei, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore; 3) its commitments to South Korea and US and French territories are more ambiguous; 4) UK participation in regional military exercises has increased markedly since 2016, and more.