By Ellen Milligan and Alex Wickham
British support for the US operation to seize a Russian-flagged oil tanker demonstrated the importance of the transatlantic security partnership, UK Defence Secretary John Healey said, even as tensions rise over President Donald Trump’s designs on Greenland.
The US requested the help of the UK’s armed forces in the days leading up to Wednesday’s seizure of the M/V Bella 1 in the North Atlantic. Britain provided operational, surveillance and naval support to enable the US military to successfully board the vessel, as well as allowing UK bases to be used in preparation for the mission.
“This operation shows the global links between the security threats faced by the UK and its allies,” Healey told the House of Commons in a statement explaining his decision to approve British military support for the operation. He hailed the “immense courage and professionalism” of American personnel “in dangerous and deteriorating Atlantic sea conditions.”
The UK is keen to use the episode as evidence to justify what European leaders have long told Trump: that European security is interlinked with America’s own security. British officials told Bloomberg that Wednesday’s operation was well-timed to show Trump the value of the security relationship between the US and UK.
It also showed how Europe can work with America to deter threats from Russia and Iran, both of which had close links to the seized vessel, according to the officials.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Trump spoke Wednesday, according to a Downing Street spokesperson, who said the pair discussed the tanker seizure, recent developments surrounding Ukraine, and the US operation in Venezuela.
Starmer, who has forged a close relationship with the American president, also set out his position on Greenland in the call, which has been to back Denmark over the US as Trump has renewed his comments about taking over the island.
Starmer’s strategy
The operation came just a day after US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner backed strong American security guarantees for Ukraine, providing some vindication for Starmer’s strategy of trying to keep Trump close, the officials said.
Healey alluded to that thinking in the Commons as he told parliamentarians they were governing in an “era of hard power, strong alliances and strong diplomacy.”
Still, both the UK and US described the motivation for Wednesday’s operation in starkly different terms. For the Trump administration, the seizure was all about Venezuela and the US campaign against drug cartels and so-called narco-terrorism. For Starmer, it was a continuation of efforts to hamper Russia in its war against Ukraine.
The UK didn’t mention Venezuela in its initial statement detailing its involvement, while the US simultaneously didn’t mention Russia in its own statements. At the same time, the portrayal of unity was strained by Trump’s renewed threats to take control of Greenland, a territory of NATO member Denmark. The White House has refused to rule out the use of military force to acquire the island.
“This operation brings into stark contrast the contradictions in the US’s approach to the Euro-Atlantic,” said Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think-tank. “It tells us we’re still capable of close military cooperation but demonstrates why the belligerent approach in the US is so unnecessary.”
