We’ll match Putin sabre rattling, says Fallon

BRITAIN has become embroiled in a Cold War-style arms race with Vladimir Putin, the Defence Secretary suggested yesterday.

Michael Fallon said the UK would not be intimidated by the Russian leader and Nato was determined to match his ‘sabre-rattling’ by increasing military strength.

He was speaking in Poland as Britain took part in war games designed to flex Nato’s military muscle 100 miles from the Russian naval base Kaliningrad.

Mr Fallon said that by increasing the number of troops participating in Baltops, an annual maritime exercise, Britain was sending a ‘warning to Putin’.

The UK sent nearly 1,000 troops for the 15-day exercise, as well as its biggest warship, HMS Ocean. A total of 5,600 troops and 49 warships from 17 countries took part.

Mr Fallon’s tough line comes despite the fact that David Cameron has so far failed to commit the UK to spending 2 per cent of national income on defence – the

‘Too close for comfort’

Nato target. This has angered military chiefs and politicians who claim it will undermine Britain’s standing on the world stage.

Admiral Lord West, the former First Sea Lord, said yesterday: ‘Our leaders seem to have lost their backbone.’

Chancellor George Osborne is due to meet defence chiefs today in an attempt to ease tensions over military spending.

In Poland yesterday, when asked if there was an arms race, Mr Fallon said: ‘Russia is clearly modernising its nuclear defence as well as its conventional arms.

‘Nato, likewise, is committed to increasing defence spending. Nato is ready to match this kind of sabre-rattling from Russia.’

On Tuesday Russia announced plans to increase its stock of longrange nuclear missiles by 40.

Russian ships were deployed to watch Baltops less than a mile from Nato vessels – a move described by one Navy source as ‘too close for comfort’.