WARSAW, Poland — The U.K. prime minister said Tuesday the country is putting its defense industry on a “war footing” by increasing defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade, and pledged to send arms worth 500 million pounds ($620 million) to Ukraine.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the increase 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,” Sunak said at a news briefing alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a visit to Poland. “As our adversaries align, we must do more to defend our country, our interests and our values.”
Sunak promised an extra 75 billion pounds ($93 billion) in defense spending over the next six years. The target of 2.5% of GDP spending was a re-commitment of a target set by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022. Sunak previously said the goal would be met when economic conditions allow.
A decade ago, NATO leaders agreed to commit 2% of GDP to defense spending. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has given that effort new urgency. Britain has spent above that over the past decade but never higher than 2.35% in 2020, according to NATO data.
“We will put the U.K.'s own defense industry on a war footing,” Sunak told British troops serving on NATO's eastern front near Ukraine. “One of the central lessons of the war…
