Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the UK bolstering defences in Cyprus and the Mediterranean

The UK Government is bolstering air defences and deploying  a Royal Navy warship to the eastern Mediterranean to improve security in Cyprus.

This comes a day after runway of the British air base in Cyprus, RAF Akrotiri, was hit by a drone, prompting security concerns.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey explained further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yvan Gray are UK correspondence with US, Hello Gevin either.
So the forces are going to Cypress, are they?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yes? But some are saying far too little and far
too late, bearing in mind that most people thought something
was up when America started to move its forces into position.
The UK is to send a ship, but it's not
likely to be there for several days. Instead, and in
addition to the French and the Greeks are sending protection

(00:27):
to Cypress. Now Cypress, of course within the EU, an
outlier in terms of its geography, never thought that it
was going to get drawn into action on Iran, but
that's exactly what's happened with a number of drone attacks,
particularly on the British raf base on the island. And
now we're in the situation that the UK sending a
Type forty five destroyer with counter drone capabilities, but it's

(00:50):
been in dark along with other ships being mended, and
some are just saying that this is a sign that
the defense forces here in the UK are simply not
up to the job. The French president has confirmed that
a frigate, the Long Dog, will arrive in Cyprus in
just a short while, and Greece has already agreed to
send four F sixteen fighter jets and two frigates which

(01:14):
is equipped with an anti drone system that the Greeks
use called Centaurus. So big levels of accusation here that
the UK government has allowed our defense sector and our
defense armed forces to absolutely fall into some kind of disrepair.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
And so is there also a repatriation flight out of
the Middle East now?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yes, So it is estimated three hundred thousand Britons are
in the Gulf. Around one hundred and thirty thousand of
the nearly half have registered with the UK government to
say we are here and we might be interested in
getting out now. Obviously those who were trapped on holiday
are desperate to get home. Those who live out there

(01:54):
as expats probably thinking well, maybe it is time to
go and maybe we're going to stay. But either way,
the UK government has now charted at repatriate and repatriation
flight that is the first specifically arranged by the government.
It's scheduled to leave Oman or Muscat International Airport in
roughly fourteen hours time, and it's going to prioritize the

(02:17):
most vulnerable first, that's British nationals, their spouse and partner
and their children under the age of eighteen will all
be eligible. There are big calls though from others on
social media, British expats saying you need to do more.
We have no information coming through. We need to know
what's going on. Having said that, British Airways has announced
it is going to operate one commercial flight from Muscat today,

(02:40):
and other airlines are said to be looking at restarting
up timetables, but only when the skies are safe to
do so.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Okay, so Trump and his niggle saying to reporters that
Sir Kiostama is no Winston Churchill. Do you think that
will land with Kiirstarma? Is this something that's going to sting.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
I think it is. Yes, I think it is. And
I think it's also a sign that perhaps UK US
relations are at the lowest up for some considerable time.
Sekre his decision not to allow American forces to use
British bases to take off, said a god into Trump
that it made the journeys much much longer for their pilots.

(03:19):
He said it was a shocking decision and he said
this is not Winston church Or we're dealing with. He
said he was very surprised and he said it was
not happy with the UK as it led to those
US planes flying many extra hours. Incidentally, it isn't the
UK that's at the bottom of his favorite table at
the moment, Spain as well. Indeed, it's so bad with

(03:42):
Spain that the relationship is sunk to new Lows, saying
that Spain had been terrible, and then suggested that quote,
we're going to cut off all trade. We don't want
anything to do with Spain. Why well, because again Spain
wouldn't allow any military basis to be part of the
op operation in Iran. And also the Spanish government has

(04:03):
refused to increase its defense spending to five percent of
gross domestic product, in contrast to many other European countries
that have acquiesced to Donald Trump's demands.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Devin, thank you very much, as always, to talk to
you in a couple of days. Devin Gray are UK corresponding.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
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