‘I was a Nato commander – this is why Britain must increase defence spending’

‘I was a Nato commander – this is why Britain must increase defence spending’



Posted by theipaper

13 comments

  1. Europe’s security is on a knife edge. Russia’s war is moving increasingly past its border with Ukraine and the military alliance standing in the way of Putin faces an uncertain 2025 with the incoming US Presidency of [Donald Trump](https://inews.co.uk/topic/donald-trump?srsltid=AfmBOopJ61P9vMa3fQlpbxyOlw3XsBQ41XahRLRWvbmds3KiElLKsEdy&ico=in-line_link).

    The UK’s military capability is far from where it needs to be and now is the time to invest in it. At least that is the opinion of Britain’s once most senior military officer and former Nato Commander, Sir James Everard.

    With a long and distinguished military career, including deployments in Bosnia, Germany and Iraq, Sir James went on to serve as Nato’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe until 2021. He has seen first-hand how the international military alliance works against [Kremlin](https://inews.co.uk/topic/kremlin?srsltid=AfmBOoosTI63F_Ppn48n_2FRJzXAsea1BQGjYcl9hFAS_jn1KyalyWfZ&ico=in-line_link) aggression and, as Europe plunges deeper into hot and cold war with [Russia](https://inews.co.uk/topic/russia?srsltid=AfmBOoqCb0B7u7TnHC_G8hpkTAfTzLVjGkWD5W5XbccraByt5PQiayHW&ico=in-line_link), he says now is the time to “get on” with spending on military solutions.

    “Nato leaders have agreed a really good strategy but they have also agreed the capabilities you need to deliver that strategy and so allies should be focused on delivering,” he told *The i Paper*. “If we’re strong we won’t have a problem.” 

    US contributions to Nato are vital to European security against Russia and the military alliance presents a key tool through which those contributions are directed. However, current US support is under threat from an incoming Trump presidency, which has sounded the alarm that US contributions to Nato will falter.

    Sir James said one way of ensuring the US maintains a strong commitment to Nato, was to ensure there was proper European investment in the alliance. The former Commander said higher spending targets were a “sensible” option to ease Trump’s anxieties over US membership.

    “If you have an incoming Trump administration then I would have thought agreeing a higher defence spending target before he gets there is sensible isn’t it,” he said.

    Trump has been a vocal critic of the alliance and his team has reportedly told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defence spending to 5 per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The current target stands at 2% of GDP and currently only 23 of Nato’s 32 members will meet that spend this year.

  2. We have decimated our military over the last 40 years.

    The first job of any government is defence of the realm and in this we have failed miserably. It’s not the first time either we were woefully unprepared in 1939 too.

  3. UK Military recruitment campaign had failed to recruit the required amount of soldiers for the past one and half decade, despite numerous attempts of recruitment campaign and god knows how much money spent on it. Address this problem first. It requires systematical reform instead of just money spending.

  5. *But there’s no danger*

    *It’s a professional career*

    *Though it could be arranged*

    *With just a word in Mr. Churchill’s ear*

    *If you’re out of luck or out of work*

    *We could send you to Johannesburg*

    *Oliver’s Army is here to stay*

    *Oliver’s Army are on their way*

    *And I would rather be anywhere else*

    *Than here today*

  6. Yes increase spending so they can waste money on endless poorly written contracts that cost billions in over runs when they could have simply bought an off the shelf product in the first place.

  7. Problem is you can increase spending on arms and management, but the thing is much like most job roles, it used to be that you could live comfortably, get a house and have a future planned from employment, and now days you cannot, until they fix the social contract, why should or would people want to put their lives on the line?
    So they can come back to being a big issue seller or left to rot with PTSD, does not really sound like a good motivating factor, hence most young people have no interest and rightly so.

  9. I know this is a serious post but the headline makes it sound like their incompetence is the reason

  10. No thank you. I’d rather my taxes be spent on improving infrastructure and services than be wasted on a proxy war that has nothing to do with us. I went on trip around Asia last year and it’s actually embarrassing how far behind London is compared to cities like Shanghai, Singapore,, Tokyo, Souel and etc. it’s laughable

  11. The militaristic propaganda constantly being pushed down our throat is what’s really alarming.

    Go and enlist in Ukraine if you think Russia is going to “invade NATO” next. And stop pushing us towards WW3 with a nuclear armed state.

    It’s actually disgusting how our leaders are putting young people’s future in the balance by this reckless warmongering

  13. War monger saying we need more money in wars and water is wet

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