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Hello and welcome to political thinking. I've just been speaking to the man who's just

stepped down as the head of the British Armed Forces, the chief of the defence staff,

the guy who's been in charge of the army, the Royal Air Force, and his own Royal Navy.

We talked, yes, about those extraordinary scenes in China this week,

in which we saw an alliance of autocrats admiring China's new weaponry. But we also talk,

not just about the threat from China, from Russia, Britain's preparedness for war, but about what is like to do this job,

what is like to travel by train during a war to Ukraine, alongside first one British Prime Minister,

then two, three and four British Prime Ministers that he has served.

And also a rather fascinating assertion of confidence about this war,

that for all the deaths, for all the horror, the Red Army of Russia,

has made less progress into Ukraine than a snail would have done

if it had started the journey from Russia just across the

border. Admiral Sartagnia Radican, welcome to political thinking. Well, thank you, Nick. Delighted

to be here. I wonder what impression those images from Beijing had on you. As you saw that new

weaponry, as you saw that cast list of the world's autocrats,

were you alarmed? Were you impressed? Were you scared?

I think maybe there's two or three things. So one, you're right. It's reflective of an era

that we're stepping into. One where geo-economic competition has come to an end

and it's much more geopolitical.

It's about state-on-state and the risk of state-on-state competition

and the risk that that becomes violent.

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