Lord Robertson, former NATO Secretary-General, was speaking at a Chatham House event to launch a House of Lords report on UK\u2013US relations.<\/p>\n
Members of the UK House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee attended Chatham House on 22 April to launch their new report, \u2018Adjusting to the new realities: Rebalancing the UK\u2013US relationship\u2019.<\/p>\n
Lord Robertson, Chair of the committee, described the strains on UK\u2013US relations brought about by President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs, threats to seize Greenland, and decision not to consult the UK before launching the war on Iran, highlighting a \u2018growing divergence between Westminster and Washington\u2019.<\/p>\n
He said:<\/p>\n
\u2018Our reliance on the United States, predicated on the na\u00efve belief that it will always be there to support us in times of conflict, has led to the diminishment of our own capabilities. Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine has been a wake-up call, and we must rapidly pivot to becoming a more autonomous military actor, working closely with European allies to develop the capacity to deter and to repel any Russian aggression on the continent\u2019.<\/p>\n
Lord Robertson was joined on the panel by committee members Lord Kim Darroch and Lord Rupert Charles De Mauley, and by Chatham House analysts Laurel Rapp, Head of the US and North Americas programme and Olivia O\u2019Sullivan, Head of Chatham House\u2019s UK in the World Programme. Both had provided evidence to the committee. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The report highlights the need for the UK to look beyond the current White House administration, and adjust policy to account for long-term trends in the US.<\/p>\n
\u2018The US\u2019s geostrategic competition with China, its related deprioritization of European security and an increasing public scepticism of globalization are all trends which will shape future administrations, whether they be Republican or Democrat,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
In this context, he added, the UK\u2019s \u2018high-level of military dependence on the US is no longer tenable\u2019.<\/p>\n
He also outlined the report\u2019s findings that the age of the United States acting as steward for the global rules and norms and institutions that structured state behaviour \u2018may well be over\u2019 \u2013 fundamentally destabilizing the international system \u2013 meaning the UK will have to develop more diverse partners.<\/p>\n
The report follows Lord Robertson\u2019s recent comments that the UK\u2019s political leadership had shown \u2018corrosive\u00a0complacency<\/a>\u2019 in meeting a 5 per cent of GDP defence spending target.<\/p>\n