UK pledges £3 billion to nature and biodiversity protection

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will allocate 3 billion pounds ($4 billion) over five years to projects aimed at protecting and restoring nature and biodiversity, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday.

The money will come from an existing commitment of 11.6 billion pounds for international climate finance.

“We will not achieve our goals on climate change, sustainable development or preventing pandemics if we fail to take care of the natural world that provides us with the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe,” Johnson said in a statement.

China’s underwater drones seized in Indonesia expose tech, routes and potential submarine plans

• Glider picked up in key maritime strait off Indonesia may have been mapping the sea floor to chart a course for submarines to go undetected: defence analyst

• Chinese UUV technology is closing in on American underwater drone advancements

Four years ago, China seized a United States underwater vehicle suspected of spying in the disputed South China Sea and criticised the US for “close-up reconnaissance activities against China”.

Now, the tide has turned. China’s neighbour Indonesia has found three Chinese underwater drones, the latest discovered in late December near South Sulawesi’s Selayar Island.

The unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), labelled “Shenyang Institute of Automation Chinese Academy of Sciences”, was later transferred to the 6th Main Naval Base in Makassar where it is being inspected.

Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst in defence strategy at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said it was significant this glider was recovered in the Sunda Strait, which is one of the key maritime straits that could accommodate China deploying submarines into the Indian Ocean while submerged.

Photo: Antara Foto/Reuters

“The glider would be taking sonar soundings of the ocean bottom to get an accurate bathymetric map of the sea floor, as well as using sensors to understand thermal conditions within the water, and acoustic conditions, so as to give PLA Navy submarines the best chance for traversing the Sunda Strait without being detected,” Davis said. “By deploying these gliders in these locations – even if they are in the waters of foreign states – China can ensure their submarines are best able to deploy from the South China Sea into the Indian Ocean, or against Australia’s north and western maritime approaches in a future conflict.”

A UUV is a robot that travels underwater to gather oceanographic data such as seawater temperature, salinity, turbidity and chlorophyll and oxygen levels without input from an operator. UUVs can help understand the undersea environment to support future operations by submarines, and are of high interest to navies around the world.

The Chinese drone fleet was deployed by the specialist survey ship Xiangyanghong 06 on a winter survey mission for the Joint Ocean and Ecology Research Project run by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, according to an article in Forbes by defence analyst H.I. Sutton.

Analysts said the discovery of Chinese UUVs revealed how much progress China had made in developing the devices and how it was preparing for a new front in warfare – underwater.

“The presence of the UUVs indicate that China is deploying submarines in those areas. Most likely, this would be for purposes of intelligence gathering and to improve the submarine’s ability to fight, if necessary, in those waters,” said Timothy Heath, a security expert from the US think tank Rand Corporation.

“China might be interested in patrolling in the waters near Indonesia as part of a broader effort to expand the operational range of Chinese submarines, including out to the Indian Ocean.”

Davis said these glider operations suggested that China anticipated sending submarines far from its shores.

“China is sending submarines further than the South or East China seas – beyond the ‘first island chain’ into more distant deployments in the Indian Ocean, or against Australia in a manner that would enable the PLA Navy to either gather intelligence, support covert operations or conduct warfighting operations against an opponent,” Davis said.

“A better understanding of the maritime undersea environment in critical chokepoints and maritime straits such as Sunda might enable them to be more effective in countering an opponent’s submarine and mine-warfare forces.”

China is widely recognised as an important developer of unmanned underwater vehicles with good quality platforms. While Chinese UUV technology lags behind the US right now, it is closing the gap.

The Chinese navy revealed a large underwater drone, the HSU-001, at a parade in 2019 to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic. The HSU-001 is comparable to the US Navy’s UUV, the Orca. While it is slightly smaller and carries a lighter weapons payload, like the Orca it can travel long distances autonomously to collect environmental data and spy on enemy vessels.

A month after the parade, the Chinese developed Sea-Whale 2000 UUV finished its non-stop 37-day test run in the South China Sea over a distance of 2,011km (1,250 miles) that could help China extend the range of its activities in the South China Sea.

British-Moroccan undersea tunnel would connect Africa to Europe

Morocco and the UK see the Strait of Gibraltar, which is under British sovereignty, becoming the hub for a 28 km-tunnel that connects the two countries.

(AFP)

RABAT--The British government led by Boris Johnson is studying the completion of an undersea tunnel linking Gibraltar to Tangiers, in partnership with the Moroccan government.

London has seriously embarked on studying the project that will link Europe to Africa, as trade relations with Morocco are developed.

In addition to the partnership agreement signed in 2020 after Britain’s exit from the European Union, Morocco and the UK see the Strait of Gibraltar, which is under British sovereignty, becoming the hub for a 28 km-tunnel that connects the two countries.

The former British ambassador to Rabat, Thomas Riley, said in an interview with the newspaper “Espanol” last August, that there are many opportunities for developing ties between Morocco and Gibraltar, in many areas, that should be explored.

The British-Moroccan project would replace the Spanish-Moroccan project, which has been discussed for more than forty years without any tangible results. A previous Spanish experimental phase began with the digging of a 600 metre-underground crossing in the city of Cadiz, south of Andalusia, and just over 200 metres into Morocco. It was ended two years later due to floods and maintenance problems.

After Brexit, the British will begin taking over the project and start its development.

The line will connect Europe and Africa via the cities closest to the Rock of Gibraltar.

The tunnel will be built near the port of Tangiers in the Mediterranean, which is the main economic artery in the Mediterranean. With this project in mind, Boris Johnson intends to visit Rabat soon to extend the continental connection project via Gibraltar.

The project could be a suspended bridge on fixed pillars, a suspended bridge on floating pillars or a submerged and supported tunnel on the seabed similar to the tunnel linking Britain and France, depending on current technologies.

At the present time, the two parties do not formally confirm they have a realistic plan for the project, but the intention to complete that tunnel or bridge between Morocco and Gibraltar has been in negotiations since the signing of agreements between the two countries in October 2019.

The first strategic dialogue between the United Kingdom and Morocco took place on July 2018 in London, and was hosted by then-Minister of Foreign Affairs Boris Johnson and attended by Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita. It aimed to strengthen cooperation in the political, economic, cultural and security fields.

British officials foresee special relations between Morocco and the United Kingdom if the European Union ratifies the agreements between Spain and the United Kingdom regarding the future of Gibraltar within the Schengen area. They believe the tunnel could mean for the United Kingdom keeping an open gateway with Europe in direct competition within Algeciras.

Sabri al-Haw, an expert in international law, sees Morocco as a good alternative for Britain to compensate for agricultural products it used to import from Spain, Portugal and Italy, after its exit from the European Union.

However, Spain does not hide its concern about the Moroccan-British rapprochement in the event of the implementation of the continental link project between Gibraltar and Morocco.

Talking to The Arab Weekly, Haw emphasized that close cooperation with Britain constitutes an economic and political opportunity for Morocco, which will work on selling its agricultural products and exporting mineral raw materials, provided that this is done within the framework of strategic agreements where the political return would be to promote Moroccan territorial integrity.

On the commercial level, Morocco and the United Kingdom agreed in 2019 to maintain Moroccan-European trade ties after Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Besides the trade agreement, the two countries have concluded a number of deals, including a mutual agreement for the export of products from the Moroccan Sahara – including fish and phosphates – to the British market.

Haw believes that mega projects such as the continental link between Morocco and Gibraltar would be among the distinct features of the policies of Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, and will make Morocco the object of intense competition between Spain and Britain.

Morocco will soon start selling clean energy to Britain and will launch air and sea routes to Gibraltar to facilitate the travel of Moroccans to the UK-British- controlled strait.

Source: The Arab Weekly