At the 2019 Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, then French armed forces minister Florence Parly came with not only her own entourage but also an entire carrier strike group, including the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, with its destroyers, tankers, 20 Rafale fighters, and helicopters. Speaking in jest at the event, Ms Parly said she hoped that the United Kingdom “would be kind enough not to reciprocate”.

Fast-forward a couple of years and the UK “reciprocated” with a vengeance. In 2021, it pushed for a “tilt” towards the Indo-Pacific and deployed a carrier strike group led by the HMS Queen Elizabeth to the region. This year, it installed a “persistent presence” consisting of two Royal Navy offshore patrol vessels in the Indo-Pacific. This will be followed by a Royal Navy Littoral Response Group in 2023 (comprising an amphibious assault ship and either a frigate or a destroyer) and a new Type 31 frigate some time in the late 2020s.