LONDON, 16 Jul (AP) \u2014 Former NATO leader George Robertson will lead a review of Britain\u2019s military strategy to counter what he calls the \u201cdeadly quartet\u201d of China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the strategic defense review on Tuesday as one of his first major acts after taking office on July 5. Starmer who leads a center-left Labour Party government, has promised to end the shrinking of the U.K.\u2019s military seen during 14 years of Conservative Party rule.<\/p>\n
Starmer also says he will increase defense spending to 2.5% of GDP from its current level of about 2.3%, but has not set a deadline. He said spending would be \u201cresponsibly increased\u201d to bolster Britain\u2019s \u201chollowed-out armed forces.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Defense said the review would aim to strengthen U.K. homeland security, bolster Ukraine in its fight against Russia, and \u201cmodernize and maintain\u201d Britain\u2019s nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n
Robertson, a former British defense secretary \u2014 who was NATO Secretary-General between 1999 and 2003 \u2014 will be assisted by ex-White House adviser Fiona Hill and Gen. Richard Barrons, a former director of operations for the U.K. armed forces.<\/p>\n
Robertson told British reporters that the U.K. and its NATO allies were \u201cconfronted by a deadly quartet of nations, increasingly working together,\u201d referring to Russia, Iran, North Korea and China.<\/p>\n
The U.K. has refrained from calling China a threat, with officials often referring to it as a \u201cstrategic challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a summit in Washington last week, the 32-nation Western military alliance called China a \u201cdecisive enabler\u201d of Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine, its most serious rebuke yet against Beijing. China insists that it does not provide military aid to Russia but has maintained strong trade ties with its northern neighbor since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The review is scheduled to issue its report in the first half of 2025 and will help set Britain\u2019s defense policy for the next decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be clear-eyed about the threats we face, with the world becoming more volatile and technology changing the nature of warfare,\u201d U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey said. \u201cIn response, our armed forces need to be better ready to fight, more integrated and more innovative.\u201d<\/p>\n
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LONDON, 16 Jul (AP) \u2014 Former NATO leader George Robertson will lead a review of Britain\u2019s military strategy to counter what he calls the \u201cdeadly quartet\u201d of China, Iran, Russia and North Korea. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the strategic defense review on Tuesday as one of his first major acts after taking office on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-244490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}