Britain increased its military budget.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office announced in a statement on Sunday that London will increase its defense spending by 5 billion pounds ($6 billion) over the next two years due to the conflict in Ukraine.
According to this statement, the list of investments in the field of defense in 2023 will be publicly available by Monday. Of the money, 3 billion pounds ($3.6 billion) will be spent on the Defense Atomic Energy Corporation, while the remaining funds will be used to renew and strengthen ammunition stocks to replace items donated to Ukraine, the statement said.
The British Prime Minister’s Office announced that Sunak plans to increase his country’s defense spending from just over 2 percent in the long term to 2.5 percent of GDP. Currently, the budget of the Ministry of Defense is 48.6 billion pounds ($58.4 billion).
British newspapers earlier reported that British Army Chief of Staff General Sir Patrick Sanders had warned he might step down unless the Ministry of Defense succeeded in increasing defense spending amid growing security threats.
Two years ago, the London government, despite the economic pressure caused by the Corona crisis and with the sole aim of establishing its position in the post-Brexit world; announced the allocation of the largest British military budget in the last 30 years. In this regard, Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister at the time, claimed that he wants to define the country’s leadership position in the new era of global cooperation and free trade, relying on modern cyber and military capabilities, and over the next four years, 16.5 billion pounds ( 22 billion dollars) was added to the British military budget, which at that time was about 42 billion de pounds. This was a 10% increase in the British military budget. According to Boris Johnson, since the Cold War, the situation in the world is more dangerous and competitive than ever before, and England must be honest with itself and stand by its allies while fulfilling such a goal depends on improving (military) capabilities. It is all over the world. With the implementation of Johnson’s decision, England ranked first in terms of the military budget in Europe and second in NATO after the United States.
