SEOUL, South Korea Reaction in the press and among analysts has ranged from stunned to skeptical after British Defense Minister John Healey said Australia and Britain would fight with Taiwan against China.

The comments have stirred attention, given that Britain maintains a minimal military presence in the Indo-Pacific region and Australia has been restoring ties with China via a chummy meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Some analysts say the audience Australia and Britain are targeting may be less Chinese and more American.

London and Canberra are keen to proceed with a trilateral nuclear submarine deal that the two signed with the Biden administration in 2021. The Trump administration is critically reviewing that deal, known as AUKUS.

Australia and Britain have invested industrial and political capital, but Washington appears to be on the verge of nixing it.

Tough talk

Aboard the British F-35B aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, docked in Darwin, Northern Australia, Mr. Healey was asked Sunday by The Daily Telegraph what Britain was doing to help Taiwan prepare for potential Chinese escalation.

If we have to fight, as we have done in the past, Australia and Britain are nations that will fight together, he said. We exercise together, and by exercising together and being more ready to fight, we deter better together.

Mr. Healey, standing alongside Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles, swiftly retracted that statement. He said peaceful and diplomatic outcomes are preferable but added, We secure peace through strength, and our strength comes from our allies.

The comments were muscular by U.S. rhetorical standards. Officials customarily deploy strategic ambiguity over Taiwan.

Two days earlier, a joint Australian-British ministerial statement expressed concern about the Chinese threat of force and coercion around Taiwan and supported Taiwanese inclusion in global organizations. Beijing lobbies against such inclusion.

The Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by posting on X, We thank our like-minded partners for opposing coercion, supporting Taiwans global engagement and standing up for democracy, freedom and the rule of law.

Chinese commentators seethed. Mr. Healeys statement reflects an imperial-era specter, Global Times editorialized.

For a country that once took pride in colonizing many countries and regions and projecting power across the seas, flaunting its aircraft carriers in the Pacific and hyping up militarism over the Taiwan Strait is little more than self-indulgent nostalgia, the state-controlled paper wrote.

The reports caused ripples in Britain. The Daily Express tabloid headlined its report, WW3 fears explode as Britain vows to fight China over Taiwan.

A Telegraph commentator was less alarmed, more downbeat about Londons capabilities.

The once mighty Royal Navy surface [escort] fleet is now down to 14 frigates and destroyers, of which only around half are available at any time, plus the two carriers, wrote retired Col. Richard Kemp. After decades of cuts, the Army and Royal Air Force are in an equally enfeebled state. & Healeys words are unlikely to give Beijings political leaders or military planners furrowed brows.

A widely read Chinese commentator on X concurred. In a response to Mr. Healey, Zhao Dashuai posted, alongside a graphic comparing the two navies: You and what fleet? The UK navy has more admirals than combat ships.

The Prince of Wales has operated off India and Singapore and in the Australia-based multinational Talisman Saber drills. Its next destination is Japan.

Londons two F-35 carriers are impressive but are very occasional visitors to the Indo-Pacific, where British forces are spread thin.

An infantry battalion is stationed in Brunei, a small naval detachment is maintained in Singapore, and two offshore patrol vessels rove the region.

Although neither Australia nor Britain could feasibly challenge China absent more powerful U.S. forces, both countries want AUKUS.

The AUKUS message

Under the trilateral security partnership of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, London and Washington committed to providing Canberra with long-range nuclear attack submarines capable of deploying far from Australias coast.

The shallow Taiwan Strait is high risk for submarines, but strategic channels that Chinese warships would have to transit to surround the island are ideal hunting grounds.

AUKUS, signed by all three governments in 2021, is under review by U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby.

Per reports from Washington, Mr. Colby has demanded to know Canberras role in any future Taiwan contingency.

He is dubious of AUKUS. He said the U.S. needs all the Virginia-class submarines it can produce and cannot sell to Australia.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Adm. Daryl Caudle said the U.S. would need a 100% improvement in submarine build rates before it could sell boats to Australia.

Meanwhile, London and Canberra have been upgrading Euro-Atlantic/Indo-Pacific ties.

On Saturday, Australias Mr. Marles wrote on X of a bilateral treaty signed to promote submarine technology transfers and training. It will enable us to collaborate closely to deliver AUKUS over the next fifty years, he said.

Key messages reassure the U.S. that both countries stand with Taiwan and that AUKUS spreads the deterrence load.

London and Canberra definitely feel themselves sharing the same trench as they try to manage the Trump administration, said Joel Atkinson, an Australian professor of international relations at Seouls Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Regarding comments from Australian and British officials, he said, I see it as an effort to de-problematize the issue of Australia receiving American-made Virginia [class] subs in the public discourse.

" Andrew Salmon can be reached at [email protected].