UK’s Cameron urges NATO countries to boost defence spending

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Thursday urged NATO partners to soon start spending 2.5 percent of GDP on defence, during a major speech in which he called for a more muscular approach to Western foreign policy.

Cameron – a former UK prime minister – said countries need to take more assertive action to protect their interests from emerging threats, including from Russia and Iran.

“We are in a battle of wills. We all must prove our adversaries wrong: Britain, and our allies and partners around the world,” he added.

Cameron used the keynote address at the National Cyber Security Centre in central London to call for NATO countries to boost defence spending above a two percent target agreed 10 years ago.

He called on countries in the 32-member Western defence alliance to “outcompete, out-cooperate and out-innovate” adversaries.

“The upcoming NATO summit must see all allies on track to deliver their pledge made in Wales in 2014 to spend two percent on defence.

“And we then need to move quickly to establish 2.5 per cent as the new benchmark for all NATO allies.”

Last month, UK leader Rishi Sunak announced during a visit to Poland that London would gradually boost defence spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2030.

He singled out “an axis of authoritarian states”, including Russia, Iran, North Korea and China as being behind the increase in global threats.