Lord Wood of Anfield, a Foreign Office minister, has said Europe must take more responsibility for its own defence, an ambition Britain will take to the UK-EU summit in Brussels this month, according to remarks made at the Atlantic Future Forum in Oslo.
Speaking on board HMS Prince of Wales, Wood said: “The United States, of course, remains indispensable to European security and the transatlantic relationship fundamental. But we in Europe need to bring more military strength to the alliance and shoulder more responsibility for defending our continent.”
He said European allies and Canada increased defence investment by more than $139 billion last year, a rise of nearly 20 per cent, and that Britain is investing more than $400 billion over the next four years and is committed to meeting NATO’s 5 per cent target by 2035.
Wood said allies backed their commitments at the NATO summit in Ankara in July with more than $50 billion of new orders for military equipment, including air and missile defences, and cited Britain’s work with Germany on long-range missiles, with the Netherlands on amphibious ships and with Italy and Japan on the next generation of fighter aircraft.
He said: “The next step is to make this kind of cooperation more routine”, adding that Britain wants to deepen security and defence cooperation with the EU, address hybrid threats and build resilience. He said Britain had recently announced a further £10 billion of economic and military support to Ukraine.
Wood said Norway’s decision to buy at least five British-designed Type 26 frigates means the two navies will operate the same advanced ships for finding and tracking submarines, and that through the Joint Expeditionary Force and the Northern Navies Initiative, signed on board the carrier on Tuesday, the navies will train, plan and operate more closely.
Britain stayed out of the EU’s SAFE defence loan scheme last year, and Wes Streeting, the Defence Secretary, told the Financial Times this week that the EU’s Made in Europe rules could leave NATO collectively weaker.
I agree however it might help if you did less talking and more action.
Frigate being decommissioned, new units delayed, subs tied up waiting maintenance , need I go on?
“Investing $400 billion.”
I like how “invest” is the new vogue to say, as sounds like new money. Surely in reality that money is all of Defence, everything, the Defence budget for 4 years with all the things that they’ve shoved in it to inflate the % included?
So still very little on new kit, such as vehicles, artillery, GBAD, guns, weapons, ships, aircraft, helicopters, jets, and above all people, that actually fight wars?
Plenty on DNE, and the positives, extra spend on Cyber, Drones, UKSF, ISTAR, that don’t require any or many people, who cost lots.