Keir Starmer boosts UK defense spending amid European tensions
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a press conference last night, announcing an increase in defense spending to 2.5%, ahead of important discussions he will have with Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday.
He specified that this increase in military spending would be financed by reducing foreign aid.
The United States has long ensured Europe’s security with an arsenal of around 100 nuclear warheads deployed across the continent, many of which are stationed at an American military base in Germany, as well as in countries such as Belgium, Italy, and Turkey.
Emmanuel Macron is now pushing Europe to open a debate on the role French nuclear weapons could play in defending the continent. Nuclear-armed fighter jets could be deployed in Germany following a potential U.S. withdrawal from Europe.
A diplomat from Berlin stated that France’s proposal will put additional pressure on Keir Starmer to take similar action and demonstrate his commitment to European security, even though London has become more "insular" after Brexit and leaving the EU.
As officials close to German conservative Friedrich Merz, who is the likely future chancellor, have suggested, French fighter jets carrying nuclear weapons could indeed be deployed in Germany due to the U.S. threat of withdrawing its forces from Europe.
Friedrich Merz said last Friday in Berlin that Paris and London should discuss "whether their nuclear protection could be extended to us," before warning on Sunday that under Trump’s leadership, the U.S. has become "indifferent to Europe’s fate."
France, the only nuclear power in the EU and the second-largest in Europe alongside the UK, possesses approximately 300 nuclear warheads as part of its "deterrence force," with capabilities for both sea and air launch.
A French official told the British newspaper The Telegraph that the deployment of fighter jets in Germany would send a message to Putin, while diplomats in Berlin are confident that this move will pressure Keir Starmer to follow suit.
Starmer stated that the government would carry out "the largest sustained increase in defense spending since the Cold War," but emphasized that this can only be financed by redirecting resources from other areas.
Speaking to world leaders via video link at a summit in Kyiv to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Starmer declared that Moscow "doesn’t hold all the cards in this war." He added that the UK is "ready and willing" to support a future peace agreement with "troops on the ground," unlike the United States.
Meanwhile, David Lammy, the UK Foreign Secretary, described Putin as "a KGB agent operating through deception" in a speech before the British Parliament. Referring to Putin’s past as a KGB intelligence officer in communist East Germany and Russia, Lammy further stated that the invasion was "unprovoked" and "barbaric," in stark contrast to Trump’s claims that the war was triggered by Ukraine.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
