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WARSAW — The U.K. promised to pump an extra £75 billion into its defense budget over the next six years in a move that will take its spending well above a crucial NATO target and pile pressure on European allies to follow suit.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said during a trip to Poland Tuesday that the new package is the “biggest strengthening of our national defense for a generation,” while his office argued it “sets a new standard for other major European NATO economies to follow.”
The move will see the U.K. spend the equivalent of 2.5 percent of GDP per year on defense by the end of the decade — something which had previously been only a vague ambition for the country when resources allow.
Speaking at a press conference alongside NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg Tuesday afternoon, Sunak said now was not “the moment for complacency.”
“We can’t keep thinking America will pay any price or bear any burden if we are unwilling to make sacrifices for our own security,” he said.
The commitment, which Sunak insisted would not require spending cuts or tax rises, would bring the U.K.’s annual defense spending to £87 billion in 2030-31.
It comes amid fierce transatlantic debate about defense spend in Europe. NATO countries are expected to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense, with 18 members currently on track to do so. Germany hit that target for the first time this year.
But former U.S. president and current candidate Donald Trump has suggested he wouldn’t protect countries failing to hit that target if they’re attacked.
In a statement accompanying Sunak’s announcement, No.10 Downing Street said: “If all NATO countries committed at least 2.5 percent of their GDP to defense, our collective budget would increase by more than £140 billion.”
‘Turning point’
The new package will include an investment of an extra £10 billion over the next decade on munitions production and “radical” reforms of Britain’s defense procurement procedures, the British government said. It’s also vowing a new “Defence Innovation Agency” to boost military research and development.
“Today is a turning point for European security and a landmark moment in the defense of the United Kingdom,” Sunak said.
The announcement comes after POLITICO reported that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was preparing to ask Sunak to up Britain’s defense spending in a bilateral meeting tomorrow.
Sunak’s language Tuesday mirrors Scholz’s after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when the German chancellor branded his country’s increased defense investment as a “zeitenzwende” — German for “turning point.”
Britain’s main opposition Labour Party — on course for government on current polling — has said it wants to increase defense spending to 2.5 percent of GDP, but has not committed to a timeframe for doing so.
Instead, it’s promising a major defense review in its first year in office if it wins the election.
Reacting to Sunak’s move Tuesday, Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey said the opposition party “wants to see a fully funded plan to reach 2.5 percent, but the Tories have shown time and time again that they cannot be trusted on defense and we will examine the detail of their announcement closely.”
