Sir Keir Starmer warns of 'era of radical uncertainty' as he pledges to boost defence and security spending
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to increase defence and security spending to 5% by 2035 at a Nato summit amid escalating hostilities in the Middle East.
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The Prime Minister made the pledge ahead of the meeting at The Hague in a bid to help "navigate this era of radical uncertainty."
He said the boosted target was “an opportunity to deepen our commitment to Nato and drive greater investment in the nation’s wider security and resilience”.
A significant jump from the current 2% NATO target, it includes spending 3.5% on “core defence” and another 1.5% on “resilience and security”.
Sir Keir added: “We must navigate this era of radical uncertainty with agility, speed and a clear-eyed sense of the national interest to deliver security for working people and keep them safe.”
Read more: Keir Starmer will meet head of NATO next week after proposed defence spending hike
It comes after Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Vladimir Putin could attack a NATO country within five years to test the alliance.
The Ukrainian president said NATO countries' targets to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 are "very slow" as Ukraine believes that Russia could have "significantly greater capabilities" by 2030.
He said that Russia's soldier are "all getting annihilated and wiped out at the battlefield" but stated that 10 years was sufficient time to have a "new army ready."
However, NATO secretary general Mark Rutte described the move to spend more on defence as a “quantum leap” that would make the organisation “a stronger, a fairer and a more lethal alliance” after reports Spain had a reach a deal that would see it exempted from the 5% target.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that Spain would be able to keep its commitments to the 32-nation military alliance by spending 2.1% of GDP on defence needs.
The Prime Minister prepared to fly to the Netherlands for the two-day Nato summit against the background of both the war in Ukraine and hostilities in the Middle East.
Late on Monday, Donald Trump claimed he had secured a ceasefire between Iran and Israel after Tehran retaliated against a US strike on its nuclear facilities.
This morning, the Israeli government confirmed it had agreed to Mr Trump's ceasefire proposal after "achieving the objectives" of its attacks on Iran.
On X, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran has "no intention" to continue its attacks on Israel provided it stops its "illegal aggression against the Iranian people."
Today will also see the publication of the UK’s national security strategy, which is expected to call for the whole of society to become more resilient and recognise national security “means more than it used to”.
The document will tie together a series of reviews commissioned by the Government, including the recent strategic defence review, a review of the Aukus alliance with the US and Australia and an audit of relations with China.