LONDON — The U.K. and its northern allies have pledged to develop a new naval partnership aimed at repelling Russian advances in the High North.

First Sea Lord Gwyn Jenkins — the head of the Royal Navy — said Wednesday he had signed a declaration of intent with his counterparts from Nordic, Baltic and other Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) countries last week to bring together a “multinational maritime force.”

Jenkins acknowledged that the U.K. has a “global responsibility” encompassing the Middle East, but said that as the navy modernizes it “will be geared towards the North Atlantic.”

“This is where our long-term focus must remain, where Russian service and subsurface activity continues to pose a systems challenge,” he added.

Addressing an audience at the defense think tank RUSI, Jenkins stressed that the JEF alliance must “deepen and evolve” in order to “generate the collective combat power necessary.”

The navy chief tried to address widespread criticism that the force had been unprepared to deploy in response to the Iran war, saying: “I’m here to show you that the Royal Navy is already rising to the challenge in front of us.”

Strains on Britain’s maritime resources were laid bare by the debacle of HMS Dragon’s deployment to the Mediterranean to defend Cyprus, which took several weeks to reach its destination and left the U.K. with only one other destroyer in service, which is committed to a separate Carrier Strike Group mission in the High North.

Jenkins said that he is focusing his efforts on rapidly equipping the navy with uncrewed systems to sit alongside crewed vessels — such as the minehunting robots promised for the Strait of Hormuz — in order to meet the threats identified last year by the Strategic Defence Review (SDR).