‘Defence Growth’ & the Future of Trans-Pacific Partnership
Audley Senior Advisor Chris Wilkins reviews the key discussions that took place aboard HMS Prince of Wales at this year’s Pacific Future Forum.
On 29th and 30th August, the 2025 Pacific Future Forum (PFF) was held in Tokyo aboard HMS Prince of Wales, the second of the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.
The meeting came at a critical juncture, with concern about threats to global security and peace growing every day. PFF ‘25 brought together 450 delegates from 15 countries to establish how the worlds of defence, industry, and technology, with government support, can help protect our shared prosperity and security in today’s troubled world.
The seventh iteration of the Forum was part of the wider diplomatic engagement of this year’s Carrier Strike Group deployment, which aims to demonstrate the UK’s high readiness to protect national interests and underpin global security, involving a series of joint military exercises with allies on land and sea, in cyber, and in the air.
Key figures from across Government, industry, military and academia convened for the event. From the British side, senior speakers included John Healey (Secretary of State for Defence), Douglas Alexander (then Minister of State for Trade Policy and Economic Security), General Sir Gwyn Jenkins (First Sea Lord) and H.E. Julia Longbottom (UK Ambassador to Japan).
The Japanese Government was also represented at a senior level, including Gen Nakatani (Minister of Defence), General Hiroaki Uchikura (Chief of Staff, JSDF), and Admiral Akira Saitō (Chief of Staff, JMSDF).
Fundamentally, the Forum reaffirmed the profound interdependence of the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic regions. The security of the two regions is inextricably linked. With the UK’s prosperity depending on open global trade routes, resilient undersea cables, and secure energy supplies, it is our responsibility to support the security of these networks in the Indo-Pacific.
PFF ‘25 also stressed the centrality of the defence-industrial base, arguing that the strength of open nations lies in their ability to compete and collaborate by linking defence with industry and drawing in technology firms whose dual-use innovations contribute to both security and wider societal goals such as economic growth, climate resilience, and demographic adaptation.
This is consistent with the recently published Defence Industrial Strategy, which positions defence trade as a key pillar of ‘defence growth,’ recognising its role in creating high-skilled jobs, driving innovation, and protecting our national security.
There was agreement throughout that defence must be viewed as a legitimate growth sector and supported by long-term policy stability and clear strategic intent. This will enable investment to be sustained at the scale needed to drive innovation and deliver enhanced capability.
Linked to this was the idea of being ‘allied by design.’ Achieving lasting critical mass depends on genuine interoperability and interchangeability between allies across all five domains – land, sea, air, space, and cyber – as well as within the sub-threshold environment.
Effective deterrence is generated not through occasional exercise but through persistent, integrated engagement. Clearly, building this meaningful integration will require a concerted and coordinated effort across both the public and private sectors of all likeminded allies.
Moving beyond a defence focus, it was fascinating to hear insights on the changing global economic landscape too, as long-standing assumptions about trading relationships are cast aside and we move into a world of economic statecraft. Discussions highlighted the strategic significance of critical minerals and shifting global supply chains, and explored how nations are increasingly leveraging trade and investment as tools of influence on the global stage.
It was a pleasure to be involved in another successful Pacific Future Forum and we are very much looking forward to bringing its Atlantic counterpart back to the United States of America next year. A huge thank you to all our distinguished contributors, and to the Royal Navy, Japanese Government, and British Embassy in Tokyo for their support in hosting these crucial discussions.
By Chris Wilkins, Senior Advisor at Audley and Former Director of Strategy at No10.