On Monday, the Prime Minister addressed NATO leaders in Brussels, emphasising the importance of modernising the alliance so that it can continue to underpin our national security as we recover from the pandemic.
Richard Fuller, MP for North East Bedfordshire, said:
Our commitment to NATO as Europe’s leading contributor remains unwavering, but in order to keep us safe, it needs to continually adapt and evolve to meet new challenges and emerging threats.
That is why, the Prime Minister called on allies to commit to the 2030 NATO modernisation initiative, which alongside strengthening deterrence and security, calls for a focus on shared values, new policies on emerging threats and significant investment in research and development, so that NATO can face down the threats of the future.
A strengthened, modernised NATO will be the foundation of recovery from the pandemic.
This message is under-pinned by the UK's commitment to defence spending, second only to the US and ahead of all of our European allies. That said, we need to keep increasing our military capabilities through innovation and rebalancing the shares of public expenditure so defence is given a higher priority. Accessing the “peace dividend” after the end of the Cold War is no longer an option