Russia: Arms Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Lord Boyce
Main Page: Lord Boyce (Crossbench - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Boyce's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(9 years, 11 months ago)
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Baroness Warsi
My noble friend makes an important point. He will probably be aware that NATO has set a target for its members to retain defence spending at 2%. I am pleased to say that the United Kingdom has met that target, and has done so since the day it was met. We will meet it this year and will meet it again next year. Let us also not forget that the UK has the biggest defence budget in the EU and the second largest in NATO.
Lord Boyce (CB)
Does the Minister agree that the 2% target that she said has been achieved has been met only by taking into account spending on contingency operations? That was not the practice in the past; therefore, if one is totally honest we are not meeting that 2% target.
Baroness Warsi
The brief I have from my colleagues in the MoD is that we have met the 2% target, and have done so since the day that target was set. If that is not the case, I invite the noble and gallant Lord to write to my colleagues in the MoD.