UK 'actively recruiting' Asia spies as anti-China push shifts to higher gear

The head of British military intelligence has revealed that London is "actively recruiting" new spies to be rapidly deployed in Asia.

"We are deploying defense intelligence personnel and we have started into a range of locations around Europe and we are currently recruiting for those that will go further east,” the Daily Mail cited Lieutenant General Jim Hockenhull, the UK chief of defense intelligence, as saying on Friday.

Hockenhull also revealed that he is currently in the process of recruiting fluent Japanese-speaking military members so that they can later be turned into intelligence officers because he "think[s] that is a shorter way of working than it is to take a serving intelligence officer and try and get them to be a fluent Japanese speaker.”

"We are trying to be imaginative in the way we do this and I hope that individual will be available to deploy if not later this year then certainly next,” he added.

This comes following a multi-billion-dollar submarine deal the UK, the US and Australia have signed.

The trio announced Wednesday a security partnership for the Indo-Pacific which is purportedly aimed at protecting their shared interests and allowing for greater sharing of their military capabilities.

Under the new alliance, dubbed AUKUS, the US and Britain will help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines. The three countries claim that the initiative aims to ensure peace in the Indo-Pacific region.

The deal, however, instantly drew condemnation from China and France.

US-UK-Australia pact angers France, EU more than China

China and France have denounced the new Indio-Pacific security alliance between the United States, Britain and Australia.

Calling on the West to move away from its "Cold War mentality," China voiced concerns about the military pact and said the deal would disrupt regional security and undermine non-proliferation agreements.

The new security pact also infuriated Paris, effectively scuttling a previous $40 billion deal it had signed with Canberra to supply French-designed conventional diesel-electric submarines to the Australians.

France expressed outrage over the security pact and denounced the move as a major betrayal, with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian saying, "It's a stab in the back. We created a relationship of trust with Australia and that trust has been broken.”

“This is not done between allies,” Le Drian added, calling the deal a “unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision.”

Many observers also warned that the trilateral pact could lead to a situation very similar to the US-Russian arms race during the cold war.

'UK acted in opportunistic manner'

A French diplomatic source said on Friday that the United Kingdom acted in an opportunistic manner in the deal struck between the United States and Australia.

"The UK accompanied this operation opportunistically," the French diplomatic source said. "We do not need to consult in Paris with our ambassador to know what to think and what conclusions to draw from it."

France has so far not mentioned Britain in any official communication regarding the deal, directing its criticism at Australia and in particular the United States.

French officials have described the exclusion of France from the new security partnership as a moment that will deepen an already widening rift between longstanding allies.

French officials in Washington accused top American officials of hiding information about the deal despite repeated attempts by French diplomats, who suspected that something was in the works, to learn more.

Biden stabs France in the back on Australia nuclear deal: French foreign minister

France accused Biden of stabbing it in the back after Washington pushed Paris aside and signed a lucrative nuclear deal with Australia for submarines.

‘Irony of historical proportions’

On Friday, former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif censured the West’s double standards behind the signing of the controversial pact, calling the situation “an irony of historical proportions.”

Zarif said while the US has cited the dangers of nuclear proliferation allegedly posed by Iran’s nuclear power program, it holds no such reservations when it comes to giving Australia similar technology even if it is weapons-grade uranium.

“US, UK, Australia and France — all self-proclaimed champions of non-proliferation — are racing to enable HEU [highly enriched uranium] proliferation,” he wrote in a tweet.

“The anger and rift today is over competition for a submarine deal with SERIOUS PROLIFERATION THREAT.”

“The world is watching,” he added.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said the nuclear-powered submarine will be “in the water” by 2030.

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