The UK announced a groundbreaking increase in military spending on Tuesday, calling for Kiel Prime Minister Starmer to send a strong signal about putting a burden on President Trump before he meets him at the White House on Thursday. Ta.
Starmer said the UK will increase to 2.5% of economic production by 2027 and to 3% during the next government term. He said the UK will pay massive new spending by reducing its spending on overseas development aid.
The Labour Government had already promised to raise spending from the current level of 2.3% to 2.5% of GDP, but it had not given a date to do so. The move amounts to an increase in annual spending of £13.4 billion ($17 billion) on defense between now and 2027.
“National security stance needs to be changed because intergenerational challenges require generational response,” Sterner said in a statement to Congress, which has gained support across Congressional parties.
Starmer said the government would cut overseas development aid from 0.5% of gross domestic product to 0.3%, adding that he regretted the cut. “This is how the defense and security of the British must always come first,” he said.
Trump has long called for European allies to contribute to Europe's defense. He falsely claimed that the US provided the majority financial support to Ukraine.
However, NATO executive director Mark Latte recently asked NATO members to spend “significantly more” than 3% of economic output on defense. Trump's recent statement on Ukraine reinforces fears that the US is withdrawing from decades-long commitment to Europe's defense.
Starmer repeatedly reiterated the centrality of the Transatlantic Alliance to European security. It distinguished itself from Germany's new prime minister, Friedrich Merz.
“We must reject false choices among allies on one side of the Atlantic,” Starmer said, saying of the UK and the US: It's a strong relationship. I want it to go from strength to strength. ”
The cuts in government aid, which is on top of previous cuts under conservative prime minister Boris Johnson in 2020, reflect a dramatic retreat from foreign aid by the Trump administration. However, Starmer presented his decision as a temporary measure required by the challenging new security environment.
Trump's billionaire alliance Elon Musk has mostly dismantled the US International Development Agency as part of a federal overhaul through what is called the government's Department of Efficiency.
In the UK, the chair of the House Speaker of the International Development Committee has called for a reconsideration of the decision.
“Cutting aid budgets to fund defense spending is a false economy that only reduces global security,” said the committee chair Sara Champion, who said, “Conflicts are despair, climate and anxiety. It is often the result of this.”
Starmer will meet Trump three days after French President Emmanuel Macron. He also sought to project unity between Europe and the United States, but he gently resisted at some points. Macron revised Trump's claim that Europe would be repaid for aid to Ukraine.
Starmer is expected to hold a meeting of European leaders in London on Sunday to discuss the joint plan on continental security following his meeting with the president in Washington. It is based on a meeting hosted by Macron in Paris last week after Trump announced last week that he would begin a direct meeting with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin about a ceasefire in Ukraine.
