First Sea Lord Opening Remarks at International Sea Power Conference 2026.

Official Statements

• British Government, November 11: “Minister, Allies, friends and colleagues, welcome to the International Sea Power Conference 2026. It is obviously no accident that we’re hosting this Sea Power conference in Norway, nor that we’re hosting it on board Britain’s most powerful warship. This is a statement of our alliance and the strength of our allies, and it is a statement of UK intent.”

• British Government, November 11: “But this conference is more than that. This conference is a chance. A chance for everybody in this room to make a difference. A chance for us all to exercise that agency that we have in the protection of our nations and of our allies. There are only three things I want to cover in this brief introduction this morning.”

• British Government, November 11: “I just want to talk about the enduring importance of the sea. I want to talk about what is changing in our world. And I want to talk about the action that we need to take to respond to that change. It won’t be lost on this audience that the sea remains the vital artery that sustains all of our nations. It is the non-negotiable territory which we must defend.”

• British Government, November 11: “We may choose which wars to participate in. We may choose which allies to fight alongside. We may exercise our choice as to what we do as nations. We have no choice in the necessity of protecting our seas. It’s a truth. Every single nation represented in this room depends on the sea, not only for its prosperity, but for its survival. All of our prosperity is dependent upon the sea. Oil flows under the sea. Gas flows under the sea. Energy is transported on the sea.”

• British Government, November 11: “All of the data that our populations depend on, 95-plus per cent of it, comes in cables under the sea. Our energy is increasingly drawn from the sea. And yet, it’s a reality, a paradox of our world. Whilst our nations have become more and more dependent upon the maritime, they have become less and less aware of that dependence.”

• British Government, November 11: “Our people rightly take their great societies for granted. Food is on their shelves. Data comes to their homes. Energy powers their lives. Many don’t realise quite how vulnerable they have become. And that vulnerability is manifesting because of change. The global geostrategic environment in which we all live and operate is under stress. There is a major war in Europe that has killed millions of people. There is conflict in the Gulf. There is instability everywhere I look.”

• British Government, November 11: “At no time in my 36 years of a professional military career have I seen a world this unstable. We are no predictors of war. I’m not telling you that war is coming. But I’m telling you that instability is here, and that our job is to be ready. But marry that instability with the pace of technological change.”

• British Government, November 11: “The change is never going to be as slow again as it is today. This is it. This is as slow as it gets. We have to keep pace with that change. And it’s because of those three vital things, the dependence upon the sea, the geostrategic environment, the pace of technological change, that we’ve created this agenda for today. We’re going to talk about the importance of NATO and allies in the Atlantic and the Baltic and the High North.”

• British Government, November 11: “We’re going to draw lessons from the war in Ukraine. We’re going to listen to a national hero, General Zaluzhnyi who’s going to stand here and tell us the lessons that have been drawn out of Ukraine that we all must pay attention to.”

• British Government, November 11: “But just so we’re clear, this is not just about the Atlantic or the Baltic or the High North. Because we’re also going to discuss the importance of the Pacific, the choke points in the world on which global trade and prosperity depend. We’re going to talk about the Mediterranean. We’re going to talk about the Black Sea. Because the sea is global. Whether we want to believe it or not, it connects us all, and we are all dependent upon it.”

• British Government, November 11: “But in the back of your mind, what I want you to keep hold of: this is about action. This is not another talking shop. This is not just a place for us to trot out our familiar lines. This is a place for us to exercise our agency.”

• British Government, November 11: “Whether you’re a minister, whether you are in the military, whether you’re an academic, whether you are in the media, you all have a role in this. You all have agency in the outcome that we shape, and we shape it here. Because fundamentally, our job is to be ready. I don’t know if there is to be a bigger war or not. That is not my job to worry. My job is to be ready.”

• British Government, November 11: “My job is to make sure that we can respond if we’re asked to respond, to work out how we harness the best of what technology is available so that we are ready. But to do that, we’re going to have to take some chances. We’re going to have to take some risk. It’s often levelled at me - ‘You’re going too fast’. A Hybrid Navy is ambitious. The technology’s not ready. You need to slow down.’”

• British Government, November 11: “I reject all of that. I reject it all because it is not a choice. The only risk, the only risk that I’m interested in, is that if we have to go to war, we are not ready. We can’t afford to be in that position. We have to embrace what is available to us now, because if we find ourselves against an opponent who has done so, and we have not, we will lose. Our job is not to lose. Our job is to win.”

• British Government, November 11: “So that’s why we’ve assembled you all here today. That’s why we have so many great allies in the room with us today. I know that this is going to be a great conversation. I know that we’re going to get a lot of value out of it, and I’m really looking forward to talking to you all in the margins and participating myself.”