Nato expansion to ‘support Ukraine’
Boris Johnson says alliance proves Putin is wrong
VLADIMIR Putin’s hopes of a diminished Nato have been proved “completely wrong” by Sweden and Finland joining the alliance, Boris Johnson said.
The two Nordic countries are on track to end their historic neutrality and join the defence alliance after Turkey withdrew its objections.
Arriving at a summit of Nato leaders in Madrid, where he will commit extra UK forces to the alliance’s effort to protect its eastern flank, the Prime Minister said Russian President Mr Putin is getting “more Nato”, not less, as a result of his actions in Ukraine.
The UK already has a significant military presence in Estonia and the Prime Minister will use the summit to expand its headquarters in the Baltic nation.
Officials said this will ensure the UK can provide rapid reinforcements if needed, and deploy artillery, air defence and helicopters.
The alliance plans to have 300,000 troops at high readiness - up from the current 40,000 - and the UK will commit capabilities in land, air and sea to the “new force model”.
Mr Johnson said: “The first lesson really from today is that if Vladimir Putin was hoping he would be getting less Nato on his western front as a result of his unprovoked, illegal invasion of Ukraine, he’s been proved
completely wrong - he’s getting more Nato.
“This is a historic summit in many ways, but we’ve already got two new members coming in, Finland and Sweden, a huge step forward for our alliance.
“And what we’re going to be doing now is talking about what more we can do as an alliance to support the Ukrainians but what we also need to do to make sure that we think about the lessons of the last few months and the need for Nato to revise its posture on its eastern flank.”
The Prime Minister will call on alliance leaders to increase their defence budgets, but he is under pressure to do more on the UK’s military spending.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who is also attending the Madrid summit, said that while he has enough funding for the “here and now”, extra investment is needed in the next government spending round from the middle of the decade.
“My (spending) settlement was done before Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is very, very dangerous on the world stage,” he told Sky News. “The world is less secure than it was two, three years ago, and is not looking likely to change for the rest of the decade. That is the moment, in the middle of the decade, to say we should commit to increased funding.”
Downing Street defended the government’s record on funding, insisting the benefits of new technology and kit outweighed cuts in the number of soldiers.
The row comes after the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Patrick Sanders, warned any further cuts to the size of the British Army would be “perverse”.