Independent Scotland could have defence role like Nordic nations, says ex Labour advisor

Mr Clark said currently Scotland's role was limited to helping fund and implement foreign policy decisions made by the UK Government but that it could play a greater strategic part, like that of Nordic countries were it to become independent.

"As part of the UK, Scotland’s role influence will continue to be limited to one of funding and implementing foreign policy decisions taken by a Government in Westminster that it usually hasn’t voted for," he said.

"The UK Government’s performance in relation to Russia has been mixed at best in recent years. It has done well in supplying military hardware to Ukraine, but allowed London to become the leading international centre for Russian money laundering and, as the Russia Report shows, failed to tackle covert Russian influence properly. 

"There is a strong case for arguing that Scotland could contribute much more constructively as an independent force within the international community." 

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Mr Clark, now a foreign affairs consultant, was responding to an article by Anthony Salamone, published on his Political Courant website yesterday, and reported on in the Herald on Sunday.

Mr Salamone, a member of the Europa Institute at the University of Edinburgh, argued that the war in Ukraine had profound implications for the debate on Scottish independence and said the new era of uncertainty hanging over Europe would make it harder for the Yes side to gain support.

However, he also said the Pro-UK side should not overstate their advantage in the new constitutional debate following the invasion and warned that the war had demonstrated post Brexit Britain's diminished role in world affairs.

"The primary axis for the response has been between the United States and the European Union, with the United Kingdom playing a supporting part on the side. In that sense, the UK is fulfilling a role more like Canada or Norway than France or Germany," Mr Salamone said.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace addresses media at a meeting of the defence ministers of the Joint Expeditionary Force nations to reaffirm their solidarity and cooperation amid the elevated security concerns, at Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire on February 22, 2022. The Joint Expeditionary Force is a defence coalition of 10 countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. Photo Jacob King/PA.

Mr Clark agreed with Mr Salamone's assessment of the UK having a lesser role, but said the consequence of this was that Scotland could have ambitions to seek a bigger part in the EU and Nato as an independent state.

He highlighted talks Mr Johnson held at Chequers on March 14 with representatives from the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), a British-led coalition of ten northern European countries.

The discussions resulted in an agreement to “co-ordinate, supply and fund” more arms and other equipment requested by Ukraine. And they declared that JEF, through exercises and “forward defence”, would seek to deter further Russian aggression.

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JEF was established a decade ago as a high-readiness force focused on the High North, North Atlantic and Baltic Sea regions. It is made up of Britain, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. 

Two weeks later Ben Wallace travelled to Norway to announce that the UK plans to increase its military presence in the Arctic amid growing concern about Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Clark said: "We can see this...in relation to the UK’s own work on Ukraine through the Joint Expeditionary Force, which brings it together with countries like Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the Baltic States. 

"These small countries have made a real difference by supplying weapons to Ukraine and galvanising international action.

"Indeed, Boris Johnson and Ben Wallace have spent far more time over the last month talking to, and being influenced by, for example, the governments of Estonia and Finland than they have ever spent engaging with the elected representatives of Scotland, whose opinions on Brexit they brusquely ignored.

"It seems entirely logical to me that Scotland’s response to the crisis should be to aspire to similar role as an independent state."

The analyst went on to say that "one of the most important foreign policy tasks" resulting from Russia’s war against Ukraine was the need to strengthen Western unity and to upgrade the institutions on which it is built, primarily Nato and the EU. 

He said one of the consequences of the crisis is that the transatlantic alliance is being reconfigured around the US and the EU, with the UK and Scotland playing a lesser role.

"Anthony [Salamone] acknowledges this when he describes US-EU consultations as the “primary axis” of Western political coordination.

"However, he fails to consider the implication, namely that it leaves Brexit Britain - and by extension Scotland - effectively shut out of what is clearly going to be the most important challenge of the next few years - strengthening the European pillar to the point where it is able to stand on its own in facing up to Russia. 

"This isn’t just about building up defence capabilities, in which the EU is now going to take on a bigger role. It also involves things like trade policy and energy security over which the EU has long had policy responsibility.

"The only way for Scotland can contribute to this process is as an independent state."