Rishi Sunak visited an air ambulance base in Northern Ireland, where he met with crew members. Photo: Simon Walker/No. 10 Downing Street
Ireland will not be a “friend” of Britain under Sinn Féin, a report backed by two former defense secretaries warned as Rishi Sunak visited Northern Ireland to mark the restoration of Stormont power.
On Monday, the Prime Minister will meet the new leaders of the Northern Ireland Executive after the Assembly reopens after a two-year standoff.
Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill made history this weekend by becoming the first Minister for Northern Ireland, a nationalist, which some say brings a united Ireland a step closer.
However, in a policy document published on Monday, Sir Michael Fallon and Lord Robertson of Port Ellen warned that the UK needed to strengthen its defense relationship with Ireland to ensure the Republic was «capable of defending» itself.
Former ministers The Conservative Party and Labor Defense Party wrote the foreword to a report by the Policy Exchange think tank, warning that Sinn Féin's «enduring Anglophobia» was contrary to Britain's strategic interests.
With elections in Ireland next year, it is possible that Sinn Féin, the republican party, could soon hold power in both Dublin and Belfast for the first time.
The report says: “With polls predicting a Sinn Féin win At the next general election, Ireland's security cooperation with Britain and the transatlantic alliance is likely to be in jeopardy before the end of the decade.»
“Sinn Féin's enduring Anglophobia and ambivalence about transatlantic and European security mean that an Irish government led by it will not be a friend to British strategic interests. If Sinn Fein wins in 2025, the UK will therefore face many more years of being an uncooperative and likely hostile neighbor in the face of growing external threats.
Mr Sunak is due to be welcomed to Stormont Castle on Monday by Ms O'Neill and Emma Little-Pendelly, the DUP's new Deputy First Minister, who arrived on Sunday evening to meet public figures such as emergency service personnel. on his seventh visit as prime minister.
The impasse at Stormont ended after the DUP abandoned its opposition to power-sharing last month after months of negotiations with the UK government.
The deal handed Northern Ireland an extra £3.3 billion, as well as new legal safeguards to limit checks on goods moving from there to and from the UK.
Speaking on Sky News on Sunday, Ms O'Neill said her party was entering a «decade of opportunity.» Over the weekend, she stressed the similarity of priorities with Ms Little-Pendelly despite their policy differences, noting areas of policy «overlap» such as affordable child care.
In a Policy Exchange report, Sir Michael, defense secretary from 2014 to 2017, and Lord Robertson, who held the post from 1997 to 1999, warned that Irish security had received «little attention» since the Cold War.
They wrote: “The growing Russian, Iranian and Chinese presence in the Republic poses a behind-the-scenes threat to the United Kingdom itself.
“The Republic plays a very small role in European defense cooperation; its forces, especially its maritime ones, need to be strengthened rapidly to be able to defend against today's threats.
“The UK should certainly encourage this, building on the original UK-Ireland Defense Agreement signed in 2015 year. But the current threats to our own security are growing and becoming urgent. What the Government must do immediately is to re-recognize the vital strategic importance of Northern Ireland and strengthen this weak point in our own security.»
They warned that the return of an aggressive Russia «actively waging war in Europe» had increased the strategic importance of Britain's Atlantic flank and said the Ministry of Defense should build more naval bases and military airfields in Northern Ireland to give the Armed Forces additional access to North Atlantic.
“As Defense Ministers in different governments at different times, we know that little attention was paid to the security of the island of Ireland in the immediate post-Cold War period,” they wrote, adding: “Rethinking the importance of Western approaches is all the more pressing in the increasingly tense Euro-Atlantic geopolitical climate.”
Report reflects concerns raised by senior Defense chiefs, including Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the Chief of the Defense Staff, are warning of threats to transatlantic submarine fiber optic cables approaching the British Isles. Russian submarines and surveillance ships are known to have been very active in the eastern Atlantic.
According to the report, Closing the Back Door: Rediscovering Northern Ireland's role in British national security, Ireland has also been targeted by Russian, Iranian and Chinese spies in recent years as an easy way to undermine European security.
Lord Robertson and Sir Michael are concerned about the increased risk from Britain and Ireland on the Atlantic flank, warning that European security as a whole could be undermined if left unaddressed.
“Russia poses an acute maritime threat to both our countries as it targets the submarine fiber optic cables, pipelines and interconnectors that underpin our critical digital and energy systems,” they wrote. “Russian intelligence and warships have been detected off the coast of Ireland and near key transatlantic cables.”
Three quarters of the most important Atlantic cables are thought to pass through or near Irish borders. The republic is home to a third of European data processing companies. If left unchecked, this could allow cyber hackers from hostile countries to easily gain access to banking, transport and healthcare systems across the UK.
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