British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday April 23 announced the biggest strengthening of the UK’s national defense in a generation, with a fully funded plan to grow the defense budget to 2.5% of GDP by 2030.
US President Donald Trump leaves on Monday for a NATO summit in London and he is under pressure from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resist the temptation to wade into the British election campaign coming up later in December.
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.
By Barack Obama, President of the United States - In 1939, President Franklin D Roosevelt offered a toast to King George VI in the White House. “I am persuaded that the greatest single contribution our two countries have been enabled to make to civilisation, and to the welfare of peoples throughout the world,” he said, “is the example we have jointly set by our manner of conducting relations between our two nations.”
United Kingdom Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said that April first marks the beginning of a new financial year, but above all a remarkable turnaround: “a major milestone for Defense with our budget increasing for the first time in six years in real terms”.