The UK government will increase defense spending by 5 billion pounds ($6 billion) over the next two years in light of the conflict in Ukraine. According to TASS, this is stated in a statement from the office of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
It notes that the item on increasing the military budget will be reflected in the updated version of the Integrated Security, Defense and Foreign Policy Review of the United Kingdom, which will be published on 13 March. The statement clarifies that 3 billion pounds ($3.6 billion) will be directed to the development of nuclear deterrence forces, and the remainder of the amount will go to replenish stocks of ammunition and weapons transferred to Ukraine.
Sunak’s office stressed that in the long term, the UK wants to bring its military spending to 2.5% of GDP (currently just over 2%). The report says that after 2025, the defense budget will be revised towards a further increase, subject to availability. The British military budget is 48.6 billion pounds ($58.4 billion) a year. Earlier, local newspapers reported that the Chief of the General Staff of the British Army, Patrick Sanders, threatened to resign if the Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense did not achieve an increase in funding for the army amid growing security threats.
Speaking about the updated review, the British government indicated that the document “responds to emerging geopolitical threats” – from a special Russian military operation in Ukraine to “economic coercion” from China and “increased rivalry between states.” The office noted that the new document will detail the British authorities’ approach to relations with the PRC in order to “manage the era-defining challenge” posed by the “military, financial and diplomatic activities” of the Communist Party of China.
“The review contains new measures to strengthen the economic security and technological capabilities of the UK and proposals in the field of international development,” the statement said. “The prime minister has set the direction of the government for a coherent, coherent and tough approach to China based on national interests and in coordination with allies.”
In March 2021, the British authorities released the United Kingdom’s Comprehensive Security, Defense and Foreign Policy Review, which called Russia “the UK’s most pressing threat”. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov then said that the positioning of Russia as a kind of threat is unacceptable for Moscow. At the same time, China was characterized in the document as “the most significant geopolitical factor in the modern world with great consequences for British values and interests.”
Source: Rosbalt
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