The UK, which has been barely cutting NATO minimum defence spending of 2% of GDP for years, will attack foreign aid budgets to get a new 2.5% level, the government says.
Just weeks after the UK government strongly criticized President Donald Trump for cutting the country's foreign aid budget in a freeze on USAID, Westminster does the same and boosts the Department of Defense They are stealing money from their aid.
Despite all the belligerent rhetoric from Westminster, support for the Ukrainian war and warning that the world is entering a new and more dangerous era, British defence spending as a percentage of its total economy is stubborn It remained low. In a decade when Poland nearly doubled its defensive spending, the UK has managed to drag spending, including personnel, real estate and investments, from 2.03% to 2.33%.
The Left Labour Government had pledged to broadly recognize its spending into the new 2.5% target. 5% – But the specified timeline is very long and will become a problem for the next government rather than this. Speaking Tuesday, Prime Minister Kiel vows to condense that effort by 2.5 by 2027, not in the 2030s.
The Prime Minister said: “From today we can announce that this government will begin the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War.
“We provide a commitment to spend 2.5% of our GDP on defense, but we will move it forward to reach that level in 2027. And we will keep it up for the rest of this Congress. And I will Let's spell it out, which means we'll spend another £13.4 billion on defense every year since 2027.”
He said he has set “ambition” to reach the next 3%, but whether he will take power to follow up by then is another matter.
As for where the money came from, it announced that rather than raising or borrowing taxes, it would come from cutting the UK's foreign aid budget. He continued: “In the short term, it can only be funded by strict choices. In this case, it means moving from 0.5% of GNI to reduce spending on development support. [Gross National Income] Today, it is 0.3% in 2027, fully funding increased investment in defense. ”
A few weeks after criticising Trump White House for cutting aid, the UK has followed suit, with the rise in defense spending demanded by his NATO alliance US president to do more. Funding is provided. Overall, UK foreign aid spending as part of the economy is less than half of what pre-pandemic.
The decision by a priority to cut aid to pay defense payments is a huge British political step, and after an intervention by former leader David Cameron to lean towards “soft power,” the government's budget was the only directed element of. Politicians appear to be extremely emotionally attacked by foreign aid, as evident by the fierce reaction to President Trump, who took USAID to mission earlier this month – and today in Westminster There was a protest.
Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the Priority Labour Party, was one of the first to accompany accusations of not making the world safe by swapping bombs. Of course, one justification for the large foreign aid budget given by its supporters is that giving money to foreign countries can prevent war.
UK Daily telegraph Report The aid sector itself (and is of course interested) also denounces the decision, with ActionAid calling it “reckless”, salvation of children as “betrayal” and salvation and “cruel.”
However, further cutting back on aid budgets is not enough to further boost UK Myrital. NATO has repeatedly spoken about the new perspectives needed on the trade-off between defensive states and welfare states. This would be a more difficult sell to fundamentally liberal European countries (including the UK) than to give foreigners less money.
The German Defence Minister believes he has another answer, but he believes that he moots today's defense costs with debt on future generations. They feel they are more vulnerable to Russian aggression than Britain. The UK will block troops that will benefit from the Royal Navy, but Germany is now enthusiastic about recruiting conscription and nuclear deterrence.
