More on British amphibious vessel HMS Albion which is hanging out in Japanese waters ostensibly to enforce sanctions against NK: prevent ship-2-ship transfers & other activity banned by UNSCRs. But UK's also trying to forge closer security ties with Japan
Why? Because forming deeper security ties with Japan checks China's influence and her attempt to control SCS thoroughfare. Japan also wants closer ties with allies as China gets ready to deploy military hardware like S-400 to encroach on Japanese territory
www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ne…
www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ne…
British ambassador to Japan Paul Madden tells it like it is. Before HMS Albion docked in Tokyo, Madden said the backdrop to growing cooperation was "the tensions on the Korean Peninsula as well as wider challenges to the rules-based international system" straitstimes.com/world/europe/b…
But HMS Albion had a higher calling. Before coming to Tokyo, it docked in Busan to pay respects to 900 UK soldiers who paid with their lives during the Korean War. They are buried at the UN Memorial Cemetery right next to Busan's Cultural Center
maritime-executive.com/editorials/hms…
maritime-executive.com/editorials/hms…
Albion's chaplain Eddie Wills: "It's an enormous privilege to be here in Korea to lead the ceremony of remembrance for the service people who are buried here." Wills is referring to 2,300 buried at the cemetery, among whom 900 are believed to be Britons
Many of the British war dead from the Korean War are in their early- to mid-twenties. But there are also teenagers buried at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan. Headstones reveal nineteen-year old soldiers cut down in their prime.
