NATO Brussels Summit 2018
Debate between Lord Craig of Radley and Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
Monday 16th July 2018
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(5 years, 10 months ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
There was general agreement that there was an urgent need to step up defence spending. All allies agreed to it. The 2% is by 2024.
Lord Craig of Radley (CB)
My Lords, the 2% for NATO is well understood, but the United Kingdom aspires to much more than just operating in the NATO context. There is now talk of a global Britain post Brexit, with deployments to the Far East of maritime and air forces, and we have already seen some of that. Surely 2% is not enough to cover such commitments and more should be made available to defence.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
Our modernising defence programme is obviously critical. We want to play a global role and we will continue to fund defence as we see fit to meet our global obligations.