Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, said on Sunday that the UK has deployed three ships to the Asia-Pacific this year to send the “strongest of signals” on the importance of freedom of navigation and to keep up maximum pressure on North Korea.

His comments on board the Royal Navy’s HMS Sutherland docked in Singapore, come a day after General James Mattis, the US Secretary of Defence, accused China of “intimidation and coercion” in the South China Sea and warned there would be “consequences” if it continued.

The surge of British warships, which include the Sutherland - an anti-submarine frigate - HMS Albion and HMS Argyll, is the first deployment of three vessels to the region in a generation.