NATO Brussels Summit 2018
Debate between Lord Craig of Radley and Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
Monday 16th July 2018
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(6 years, 3 months ago)
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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.