British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson insisted on Tuesday that Britain's military will not be diminished after it leaves the European Union next year. “Britain leaving the European Union has no impact in terms of the security and defense of Europe,” Mr Williamson said in a speech at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
The unpopularity of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, shown apparent by Thursday night, when protests started as soon as he landed in London for a meeting with the PM Theresa May. The US president, as the main event of his trip, will hold talks with the prime minister May and the new foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, at the PM’s Chequers country retreat.
Amid tense relations with some NATO members and conflictive economic relations with China due the “America First” policy, United States President Donald Trump criticized European Allies on Wednesday in Brussels.
The British government must increase spending on the armed forces if Britain is to maintain its defense relationship with the United States, MPs have warned. The Commons Defense Committee said without further investment, UK forces would struggle to maintain “interoperability” with the US military, diminishing their usefulness as allies.
The head of Nato has called on Britain to continue investing in defense amid claims that Theresa May has questioned the UK’s role as a leading military power. In a speech in London, Jens Stoltenberg said he expected the UK to continue playing a major international role.
Europe cannot put all of its trust in the U.S. when it comes to protection and should instead “take its destiny into its own hands,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said. It's no longer the case that the United States will simply just protect us.
With tensions between NATO and Russia rising, the U.S. military is resurrecting a fleet to patrol the Atlantic Ocean and help respond to global contingencies. The U.S. Second Fleet will provide forces along the U.S. coast and in the northern Atlantic Ocean, according to Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. John Richardson, who made the announcement Friday during a change of command ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia.
Twelve hours after being sworn in U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went straight to NATO headquarters in Brussels in what European allies saw as strong support for an institution that U.S. President Donald Trump once called obsolete.
Diplomatic tensions between the UK and Russia deepened amid claims that Moscow was blocking investigators from reaching the site of a chemical weapons attack in Syria. The UK said it was “essential” the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was granted “unfettered access” to Douma.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been arrested on Tuesday at west of Paris as part of an investigation that revealed he received millions of euros in illegal financing from the regime of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2007.