The UK has pledged to add a further £75 billion to its defence budget over the next six years, taking spending well above the Nato target and putting pressure on its European allies to follow suit.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said during a visit to Poland on Tuesday that the new package was ‘the biggest boost to our national defence for a generation’, while his office argued that it ‘sets a new standard for other major European Nato economies to follow’.
The move will enable the UK to spend the equivalent of 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence by the end of the decade.
Speaking at a press conference with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, Sunak argued that now was not the time for complacency, saying: “We cannot continue to worry about what price America will pay or what burden America will bear if we are not willing to make sacrifices for our own security.”
The pledge, which Sunak insisted would not require budget cuts or tax rises, would increase Britain’s annual defence spending to £87 billion by 2030-31.
“A game changer for European security”
“If all NATO countries spent at least 2.5 per cent of their GDP on defence, our collective budget would increase by more than £140 billion,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement accompanying Sunak’s announcement.
London said the new package would include an extra £10 billion investment in munitions production over the next decade and radical reforms to Britain’s defence procurement procedures. It will also create a new ‘Defence Innovation Agency’ to boost military research and development.
“Today is a turning point for European security and an important moment for British defence,” said Sunak.
Responding to Sunak’s announcement, Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey said his party would “like to see a fully funded plan” to reach 2.5 per cent, but that “the Conservatives have shown time and again that they cannot be trusted on defence and we will be looking closely at the details of their announcement”.
Sunak urges Europeans to spend more
After Warsaw, he travelled to Berlin and met Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Rishi Sunak told European countries that they must increase their defence spending to ensure that the United States remains committed to NATO in the future.
The prime minister said the continent must take more responsibility for its defence in an environment where Donald Trump is running for a second term in the White House.
Speaking with Scholz in Berlin, Sunak said US presidents have “reasonably” always demanded that Europe spend more on defence.
He argued that European countries could not ask the US to fund the continent’s security unless they were “prepared to sacrifice” themselves.
The Prime Minister noted that it was important for Europe to show that it was taking on more of the burden ‘to keep the United States committed to NATO’.
British helicopters heading to Russian border for NATO exercises
NATO is planning a training exercise in Finland on Friday in an area close to the Russian border.
The UK is taking part in the exercises. A squadron of nine British Army Apache attack helicopters, worth £40 million each, are heading to Finland to take part in what has been described as ‘the biggest Nato exercise since the Cold War’.
After Finland, four Wildcat reconnaissance helicopters and two RAF Chinook support helicopters will travel to Estonia, where they will remain for an extended period.
The exercise in Finland involving Apache attack helicopters is called ‘Arrow’, while the exercise in Estonia involving all three types of helicopter is called ‘Swift Response’.
The exercises are part of Steadfast Defender 24, which tests NATO’s plans to strengthen its defences in Europe against an “imminent enemy”.
The exercises involve 90,000 troops from 32 members of the military alliance, as well as around 20,000 British personnel.
