Warsaw: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced Tuesday that the country is to increase defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade.
Sunak made the announcement during a visit to Warsaw, where he also described a new pledge to send arms to Ukraine.
He said the government is putting the UKs defence industry “on a war footing,” describing it as the “biggest strengthening of our national defense for a generation.”
“In a world that is the most dangerous it has been since the end of the Cold War, we cannot be complacent,” he
said at a news briefing in Warsaw alongside NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.
“As our adversaries align, we must do more to defend our country, our interests and our values.
The announce followed the UK pledging an additional $620 million in new military supplies for Ukraine, including long-range missiles and 4 million rounds of ammunition, at a time when Ukraine is struggling to hold off advancing Russian forces on the eastern front line of the war, now in its third year.
Sunak spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to confirm the assistance and “assure him of the UK’s steadfast support for Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s brutal and expansionist ambitions,” Sunak’s
office said in its
statement.