UK Defence Secretary John Healey and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth have reaffirmed the deep military partnership between the UK and the US, highlighting Britain’s increasing role in European security and the shared commitment to supporting Ukraine, according to remarks made at the Pentagon on 6th March 2025.
Hegseth welcomed Healey and his delegation to Washington, praising the longstanding alliance between the two nations, particularly their close military cooperation. Reflecting on his own experience alongside British troops, Hegseth stated:
“Our nations, as you know, share a long and special relationship. Stronger today than ever before. I experienced that firsthand myself, as many of our generation have, on the battlefield, shoulder-to-shoulder with British troops in Afghanistan. I know how capable they are, how tough they are, and how close our bond is as brothers across the Atlantic, full stop.”
UK Defence Spending and NATO Leadership
The discussions underscored Britain’s increasing defence commitments, with Hegseth highlighting the UK’s leadership within NATO and its role in coordinating international military support for Ukraine. He commended the UK for stepping up in response to President Trump’s call for European allies to take more responsibility for their security, stating:
“European leadership of NATO, led by the U.K., led by others, is, we believe, the future of defence on the continent, ensuring we provide a peaceful future for your kids and my kids and your grandkids and my grandkids. That’s ultimately what it’s about.”
Healey reinforced the UK’s commitment to increased defence investment, pointing to Britain’s largest rise in defence spending since the Cold War, announced last week by Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He responded directly to Hegseth’s challenge for Europe to do more, stating:
“You challenged us to step up on Ukraine, on defence spending, on European security. And I say to you that we have, we are, and we will further.”
Ukraine and the Path to Peace
Both officials emphasised their shared goal of securing a lasting peace in Ukraine. Healey referred to the recent meeting between Prime Minister Starmer and President Trump, during which both leaders pledged to work together to end the conflict. He noted:
“Our meeting today follows very good discussions between President Trump and Prime Minister Starmer a week ago today, in which they both pledged to work together, our nations would work together to secure lasting peace in Ukraine.”
Healey also highlighted the UK’s leadership role in coordinating military aid, recalling the recent Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting, which gathered 46 nations with just a week’s notice.
The meeting also reinforced the historical and operational ties between the US and UK armed forces, with Healey referencing the long-standing relationship between the US Marines and the Royal Marines.
“For more than a century, your U.S. Marines and our Royal Marines have trained together. They fought together, and too often they’ve died together, defending the values that our two free nations share.”
Looking ahead, both sides pledged to continue strengthening their defence and security partnership, with Healey stating:
“I’m here today to strengthen that defence and security bond between our two nations. It’s needed now more than ever in this new era that we must face together.”
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So this week we’re the good guys again? Funny old world…
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Stronger than ever before? Can the lying turd say that with a straight face?
Unfortunately I don’t believe any of it, I think we would all be better off if America announced a phased withdrawal from NATO’s command structure. But they won’t, how can we build a European defence structure if the American’s remain in the middle of it. The US benefits from NATO more than anyone else which is why they won’t leave. Where could they even house 100,000 military if they pulled them out of Europe. Last month this guy was a weekend news anchor on Fox and apparently now he speaks for American geopolitics. Clearly not a word he is saying comes from the Donald and even if it does it can change in 5 minutes. We need to build on the JEF and assume no one else is coming. Poland and Germany can handle the central front.
100,000 is not a large number on American terms. Hundreds of bases in the USA have been made dormant under BRAC – Base realignment and closure.
Good , can we get them all out of Europe please and the U.K. . Anyone who thinks they are anything but users are deluded . Trump will cause a war here with Europe and Russia
N.A.T.O. is an entirely U.S. creation and was designed by Washington to be its bulwark against the Soviets in the east; the U.S.S. Great Britain was its ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’. N.A.T.O. has always been led by an American officer – land, sea and air commands. In turn it ‘persuaded’ European nations to buy American weapons for decades past. It now seems to be suggesting it has been exploited, taken advantage of and not received a fair return for this selfless generosity. Where to begin?
NATO is for European benefit. Don’t flatter yourselves. The USA doesn’t need you guys. Europe is a fragmented mess politically that created endless centuries of war. NATO kept major wars off the continent for 70 years.
Nope, the US is in NATO for it’s own benefit.
Also NATO kept major wars off the continent for 70 years?
No. That was the threat of Nuclear annihilation, thanks for proving you are historically illiterate (pretty standard for Americans though).
Yes Dern . Go on and educate him . NATO has gave the yanks huge influence in Europe and the U.K. . Trump is dismantling it and in ten years Europe will be if not as powerful lot more powerful than the yanks .
Thank you. I feel you are an idealist, always a dangerous outlook in international affairs. No country does such things as the present U.S. administration is intent upon out of altruism in this age or any previously. The creation of N.A.T.O. gave America security power and control. That must be obvious to you. For reasons few can explain and fewer justify, the current administration in Washington is intent – characteristically thoughtlessly – to dump its allies, abruptly as a toy thrown out of a pram. So be it, but please don’t dress this up by blaming nations that have stood together simply because a ‘strong man’ in Moscow is preferred over blameless loyal friends. Perhaps he will buy your expensive armaments in future?
Er .. no.
Read the history.
Clearly Trump wants the US military to leave Europe, but he also wants to continue selling arms to us. In my view this move is partly ideological, partly resentment against European economic success, but it is mostly about saving money because of America’s huge national debt. I think it’s the US national debt that is driving his frustration more than anything else. But his behaviour is difficult to gauge. He wants to do business with Russia and curb China’s economic power basically, without getting into a war. That’s my take anyway.
Think you are right TM he is trying to solve the near unsolvable while making his oligarch mates happy and even richer, so a lot of square pegs in round holes that his media machine is trying with some success as triangular holes and triangular pegs. As a dealer he thinks he can separate Russia and China or at least stir it up probably by helping Putin out of the disastrous mess in reality he is in and offer carrots to help him recover without any real care for future damage especially to Europe. Hey damage to Europe in his mind as a bad businessman helps his economic cause. However in the end the US lazily makes little that the World wants, that’s not built elsewhere anyway. It’s really summed up by him explaining how a Taiwanese entrepreneur is building chips in Taiwan rather than in the US as if he moved it there, when in reality he built non American core designed chips in his own Country and completely out competed as the market capitalism dictates old un innovative self satisfied US chip makers like Intel into near oblivion. He is doing the US a favour if he invests there not returning a product to its home. The sense of privilege, presumption, arrogance and entitlement is just staggering and explains why he feels America’s failings are down to foreign ‘cheating’ rather than US inadequacies. So threats are seen as the way to correctness re branded as ‘fairness’. How he will feel when he sees Europeans ‘ungratefully’ ditching or not buying US defence equipment will be interesting, his bromance with the Poles seems to be cooling as he watches them mostly ignore US kit. It’s almost like they have seen through US hegemony over allies. 😂
Trumps machinations will all go down like Starships are presently doing but in the belief that if you up the hype the problems will eventually solve themselves…. A bit like Musk tried to do with Tesla stock. In all honesty I do wonder at what stage Trump will start seeing Musk as a liability. If so, and he finds the people can no longer be fooled endlessly does he up the anti and attempt to create yet another new distortion field to outdo the tariffs one to account for Musks demise will be quite amusing.
I think he is in for a shock over weapons sales. The US simply can’t be trusted not to build in a remote turn off key in any of the weapons we buy from them.
It will very quickly become Europe first. I am nervous about buying more F35s but we have little choice short of fitting the carriers with CATS and Traps and building a navalised Typhoon ( frought with project risk) . I certainly hope they will reconsider making Tempest carrier capable.
Right now I am very concerned they will give the Russians the acoustic signatures to our Vanguard subs and the French Ballistic boats ( class name escapes me)
This week, I was in an international trade far in Barcelona. US compagnies were trying to receive visitors. Chinese booth were empty. Everyone was kind of pissed of with US gouvernement behavior. When confidence is broken… It takes time to rebuild. And even if they tried to rebuild it, it would be extremely complicated. For once, I saw the unthinkable. People starting to foresee that we could handle this one on our own. French people happy with German once. UK people talking about European sovereignty. Times are changing. It is in the air. A fresh breath of freedom is going through Europe. We felt happy about what is developping. I don’t want to go back to the previous situation. I want to feel among equals with fellow European friends. I felt well. I don’t want to curve my head in front of some random guy I did not elect, who come here and insult people. I don’t want europeans to be junior partners anymore. I want respect.
You shall have respect, mon ami.
It was a US traitor who sold all our sub secrets to the USSR just for money he was a petty officer if I remember correct.
And the UK sold the jet engine to the soviets over a game of pool?
Up defence , keep our carriers for f35 and put friend jets onto the other one asap . You are 100 percent correct on wish you say .
I’ve been exploring the MAGA world in a bit more detail. When you get down to it MAGA are very clear in there geostrategic outlook.
1) North America is the USA, it’s very clear they essentially feel that the entire North American continent is theirs and only theirs. The moves around Canada, Greenland, Mexico and Panama are not just thoughts popping out of Donald these are imbedded views in MAGA. Go read and essentially look at the nice all blue North America map of a new US Empire that is floating around the MAGA sites.
2) The world needs to be divided up into three powers USA, China and Russia.. each staying in its own area of influence but dominating that area totally.
3) The EU is a threat to the US and needs to be removed. Just look though the MAGA publications, it’s full of literal hatred of the EU as a bastion of everything MAGA dislikes.. they see China as there great peer competitor but its is really clear from my reading that their hatred and vitriol is all at the EU and by extension all European nations.
Simply put MAGA is all about creating a greater US and balancing that greater US position in a world with the Two great authoritarian powers… and Europe is essentially removed as a geopolitical entity and world player.
When I was in college we did manifest destiny as one of our history subjects and to me everything MAGA just screams 21st century manifest destiny.
Agree Johnathan they can’t stand anyone looking like them or from whom they sprung being competitive to the, people who don’t are far easier to feel superior to I guess, we get looked upon a bit like Rome did to Greece a mix of inferiority complex and bettering and battering their forbears in real terms, owning absorbs any and everything of their worth. Of course the US is forgetting India in all this so it will be very interesting to see how that works out down the line in their simplistic global picture. Of course Brazil could be another bugbear and Africa could have a role to play eventually too. The US is essentially in decline and doesn’t value what it has which perception will only hasten that decline as delusion gets greater and greater. Can’t see all its self destructive attacks on friends helping it in managing its real place in the World now that the post war world it so exploited and benefitted from is naturally changing and is less skewed in its direction. If it only accepted it could never last it wouldn’t need to flail around in those self generated death throws and could manage its new less dominant role in life to everyone’s benefit but that self entitlement makes that near impossible, it’s like watch Mad Max.
It’s difficult to know if Russia has captured MAGA thinking or if MAGA are attracted to Putin because of overlapping values. Whatever the case we need to boost our military and military capability.
The UK is part of the Anglosphere led by the US: that’s the reality of the world as it is now. The rest is political waffle.
There is no Anglosphere. We have nothing that matters in common with the USA. We are an English speaking version of France. They are an English speaking version of Russia. Our future is Europe and the USA is our enemy.
Political waffle: this is a defence site. The sooner you politicals leave, the better off this site will be.
Tell me you’ve never heard of Clausewitz without telling me you’ve never heard of Clausewitz.
The Anglosphere died in 1776, as I am sure Elliott will be along to remind you.
In this instance you are correct. The triumph of the internationalist/globalists was getting Woodrow Wilson elected who due to his British mother undermined American neutrality and our inherent proclivity for isolationism. Everything since has been because of this error.
I don’t think we can blame the end of American isolationism on Woodrow Wilson’s mum. What about the Barbary Wars, the ‘Shores of Tripoli’ and all that, or the attempted invasion of Canada? How about the US conquests of Texas, Nuevo México and California, the annexation of Hawaii, and the seizure of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines? If the US had a genuine proclivity for isolationism, wouldn’t it still just be the Thirteen Colonies?
Those actions were committed with clear and consistent objectives for example territorial expansion, security of our hemisphere or punishment for crimes against our shipping. Unending commitments under the auspices of some ephemeral rules based order or supranational organizations began with Woodrow Wilson. Isolationism and expansion to natural frontiers are not exclusive.
Sorry (and I realise this is off-topic) but I still don’t see how it started with Wilson. The US didn’t remain engaged in Europe after WW1, and although Wilson was a key mover behind the creation of the League of Nations, the US never joined the League. Couldn’t one even interpret the US involvement in WW1 as a punishment for crimes against your shipping? As for the other objectives you describe, surely they are a result of imperialist rather than isolationist policies? By definition, you can’t be a maritime trading nation and also be isolationist.
Wilson overturned nearly a century and a half of American policy to not only tolerate a blockade against American shipping, (while simultaneously arming and trading with the belligerents) but also to fight a war “democracy” not national interest.
Wilson was denied his drive for America to join the League of Nations because it was ludicrously unpopular. The thought process of internationalism he caused though became ingrained in the establishments of both parties (particularly the Democrats).
In America you have three basic schools of thought in the parties Wilsonian (internationalism), Madisonian (constitutionalism), Jacksonian (nationalism).
Our future is the rest of the world.
Why limit ourselves?
Politics is war, it is the mother and father of war. War is politics and politics is war. The winners and losers of every conflict is decided by politics, anyone that thinks it’s simply tanks and guns etc has missed human history, ask the Afghans ask the Vietnamese… ask napoleon ask the French third republic.
Anglosphere in its narrowest definition is basically 5 eyes. In its wider definition its most of the Commonwealth plus USA (out there somewhere).
However 5 Eyes is on a path to becoming 4 Eyes very quickly.
Trump, Vance and the people behind them are isolationists, and Trump’s hand-in-glove aide-de-camp Peter Navarro (who has just had 4 months in prison for Contempt of Congress, and was in the administration in Trump’s first term) has been talking about expelling Canada. The Times (the real one, not the NYT) has reported that the 4 Eyes (ie not the USA) have been consulting about how to manage the security risk posed by Trump’s administration.
Trump refused to follow standard security clearance procedures for his transition team after the Election in November.
Trump himself stole top secret documents at the end of his first term, then deceived the FBI who came to collect them, and showed them to foreign citizens who were not qualified to see them. He is wrapped around Putin’s little finger. His appointed Driector of National Intelligence, consistently promotes Kremlin positions.
The isolationists will soon be isolated by their former allies, just as either NATO will be reformed to deal with the USA’s presence, or an alternative structure will be created to defend the interests of the the advanced democracies, which for now – and perhaps permanently – do not include the USA due to Trump’s actions to undermine democracy in the USA.
Too late now. Like Putin, we can no longer believe a word the Spams say, while the Orange Man Child is in the White House.
Sorry to be blunt , but after the several weeks we have had because of Trump and his clown show.
What the f**k has it got to do with America.
They bully, they threaten all while quietly forgetting they are the only country to activate article 5 and have the gall to lambast the NATO countries for not spending after the hundreds of life’s lost and trillion spent, supporting the US in a war , we had no interest in.
If Trump wants out of NATO, I have only one answer.
“ thank you for your service, don’t let the door hit you on the way out, and take Hungary with you”
Add Fico’s Slovakia to that list. Having said that, my former students, now teachers and parents to their own children are protesting, tonight.
Bit like Brexit, the young will change the outcome with the passing of the old.
Long live Slovakia (but Hungary can f/o).
Slovakia is not like Hungary; for example they just voted in support of the EU Defence deal.
There is hope.
Quite right.
It feels like anything could happen… or like his ‘big deal’ with North Korea it amounts to nothing. It’s difficult not to see this as something of a fall for the US and it’s probably going to be the new normal. With our without Starman Musk, US politics is insanely polarised now. This is in part a very angry US reaction to woke.
AGREE.
We would be wise to get a trade deal over the line asap with the US, even if that means we have to work around our own farmers.
The secure oil and gas supplies from them, develop our own and introduce a state energy tariff for business and industry to make steel and heavy industry viable again. We cant rearm and be secure without that.
We then expand the nuclear deterrent, add Dreadnought 5.
We can still have deep defence and industrial defence ties with Europe, Australia , Canada, NZ , Japan and the world and global trade deals.
We can’t even get our farmers to pay tax, how on earth can we get them to agree to a trade deal which would completely obliterate them?!
What would we get out of a trade deal with Trumps America.we would take it up the back passage.
Our food standards and NHS are worth considerably more than anything we possibly could get out of a trade deal.
The instances of food poisoning alone are several orders of magnitude higher in America per capita .
Big pharm despise the NHS because of what it stands for, free medical care at the point of use.
They hate the NHS bargaining power where we pay a fraction for medicine . Insulin has been known about for over a hundred years. It cost pence to make, a couple of quid to QA. It cost the NHS a fraction to buy than the over a hundred quid a dose it costs in the US. Because big pharm makes sure they can keep screwing stupid the people who need it.
They know it, the government knows it and the people suffer and the government does NOTHING. Biden made a start on drug prices and it was one of the first things Trump killed.
Ventslin inhsler in the US over € 50 dollars.
It will be great to see the back of the yanks. Hopefully, they pull out of the UK sooner rather than later.
I don’t actually want to see the back of the US, I think it’s now simply inevitable as MAGA is not compatible with the US and the rest of the western world staying close allies..friends yes if sense prevails, but not close allies. That is a tragedy as it’s the end of the western liberal democracies lead world order and the birth of a new probably darker time.
I don’t know Jonathan.
I see this as the American mil/industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about. Trump is after generating sales for US kit from the Europeans and funding his balance of trade and deficit issues. Nothing less.
Personality wise, I’d go with your reasoned opinion…
However, chickens roosting, we need a rounded, self contained, Defence policy that does not rely on erstwhile allies to make up numbers. Now, anyone know a site member who could draw up our capability gaps, and put a cost to them?
In my view, the US has for years exported democracy, hand in hand with opening up new export markets for its goods. The problem being is those export markets ultimately out compete them, as per Japanese car makers, South Korean ship builders, euro passenger jets etc all. It’s the way of capitalism, emerging markets learn the skills and tech to produce better and cheaper stuff because labour costs are cheaper. MAGA wants to turn the clock to a past era of US dominace in mass manufacturing etc and that simply cannot be achieved. To an extent it matches UK decline when we lost the empire (with their help). We and the US stand above the emerging economies in tech but the problem is, most industry of that nature is not a mass employer. US can try and fight it with isolation and MAGA tactics / slogans but it will just result in lower quality goods due to no external competition/ drivers. Meanwile, traditonal allies and trading partners look elsewhere. Net result, US attempts to stop the decline actually accelerate it.
So many contradictions within MAGA… What Musk and Vance or Bannon have in common? Anger. Do they pursue similar goals? Not at all. What has to happen will happen. But I won’t turn back to the Pax Americana.
Adam Something had a really good description of the contradictions of MAGA, basically describing it as three wings: Theocratic Fascist, Corporate Technocrat and Idiot. What do Musk and Vance have in common?
Vance is an evangelist theocratic fascist who wants to spread his praticular flavor of science denying Christianity as widely as he can, to that end things like de-funding education (so that nobody knows enough science to push back against putting things like young earth creationism in the classroom, and nobody knows enough politics to object to forcing children to recite the 10 commandments every day in school), and by pressuring places like the EU to drop laws that impede him exporting those beliefs.
Musk is a Corporate Technocrat who wants a dumb consumer base that will vote in right wing governments that will deregulate markets and de-fund education so that consumers don’t push back against himself and other rich billionaires. So de-fund education so that nobody learns about things like workers rights, put pressure on foreign markets like the EU to drop things like Social Media rules, so he can support parties like the AfD that will let him sell cyber trucks.
There’s considerable overlap between the two major wings of MAGA, and they both overlap with the Idiot wing (aka Trump) who just wants power and his ego massaged.
I think you have Vance a little wrong, Dern
He is a Catholic Integralist rather than a Trumpvangelical, so that’s more like the Roman Catholic faction that co-operated with Mussolini. An integralist emphasis on removing the separation between church and state, which has been an aim of eg anti-abortion campaigners since the 1970s. There was a similar emphasis in some Right Wing religious campaigns around Reagan in 1979, eg Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority. He has written in various places how he rejected born again Christianity as inadequate – including simplistic ideas such as Young Earth Creationism.
He is also a creature of Peter Thiel, who funded both his business and political careers for the last decade. Thiel is one of the technological intellectuals of the movement, who was a co-investor with Musk in Paypal around 1998. In 2004 he bough 10% of Facebook for $500k. He has used his (20 or so) billions to fund all sorts of political setups.
Thiel wrote in 2009 that he had come to belive that “no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”.
These are risky times.
Sorry – a few typos there, and I do not know whether we can edit comments now.
I think it was one of the Pope’s cardinals who, when asked his opinion of Trump said, he’s a barbarian…..but he’s our barbarian 🙂
Divide the world into 3, But why do they think Russia with its piss poor economy & terrible weapons is the one to rule the Europe.
Its time to get over Empire & drive the EU forward.
You are the one clinging to empire.
I am somewhat older than yourself, I realised that the empire was gone – because it is in the history books.
Having a world view rather than a narrow Euro view is better than limiting ourselves.
My thumbnail sketch on Trump over-estimating Russia is because his head is still stuck in the 1070s wrt world politics. He never reads a book, and in his first term they stopped giving him daily intelligence briefings because he wasn’t interested.
So all he has is his own out of date assumptions.
Similarly wrt Canada, his hero is President McKinley (1897-1901), and in those days they just fomented wars on false pretences when they wanted a country (eg Spanish American war in the 1840s when they conquered half of Mexico – which is now Southern California). So Trump thinks he can do it with Canada and Greenland.
test
A drunk, a cheating husband, and an accused sexual predator walk into a bar, and the bartender says,
“Table for one, Mr. Hegseth?”
A r*pist, a fascist, and an idiot walks into the same bar.
“Here to join Mr Hegseth, Mr President?”
Trump admin. have some sort of unwarranted respect for the British. Maybe if they would more attentive they would know that British elite like most western Europe hate America. Only when they do our biding they ar tolerated.
most people in the Uk generally like America, very few people actually hate America and they tend to be a small minority of people who don’t really like western democracies or the Uk.
One has to chuckle at this talk of the UK leading European defence. We Brits love to hear it and bask in it!
You lead when you are the most powerful militarily. I was musing on how to compare NATO forces, how to take account of all the different elements. You can come to a lot of different conclusions, depending on the matrix.
So start again and simply measure the regular armed forces compared to the population of a state. A fair starting premise was to set manpower at 3 trained service personnel per thousand.
Of the 19 Eastern and Scandinavian nations, 17 exceeded that, often by 200% or more, only Sweden and Czechia were a bit short.
Of the 11 Western European nations, 4 hit the target, 7 were short. Luxembourg was bottom of the list, the UK.second last. We have the biggest numerical shortfall of any NATO Europe member. On that 0.03 matrix, we should have regular forces of 200,000. We actually have a trained establishment figure of 134,000, so about 66,000 short. We are basically Europe’s main backsliders.
I can hear it now, but we have nuclear weapons! And two carriers! And nuclear-powered subs! All that means is our navy is trying to keep up with French navy. We are vastly inferior in combat aircraft and combat brigades.
We like to think we are ‘leading’ Europe in some way and have the trappings in the form of an ARRC HQ and a JEF command cell, trouble is we can’t actually back either up with more than token forces. It is embarrassing having the US pay lip service to our ‘leading role’, when we and they both know that we no longer have the force levels to put very much in the air or in the field and our navy is no larger than France or Italy.
But our political and MOD elite keep feeding this ‘leading’ rubbish to the general public, who should know better, and our Allies, who do know better but are very polite to our greatly reduced military standing.