Sir, – This week, the UK is announcing billions of pounds of new defence spending, as part of a wider updating of the review of our posture which we did only two years ago. Why? Because the world is changing, and we need to change, too.
The UK government’s 2021 Integrated Review foreshadowed the global turbulence of the last two years. Sadly, our gloomy prognosis turned out to be justified. From Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine to China’s growing economic coercion, the world has become more dangerous, with far-reaching consequences for the security and prosperity of the British people, and for those of our friends and partners, like Ireland.
This week we’ve published a comprehensive update (The Integrated Review Refresh 2023: Responding to a More contested and Volatile World, available on gov.uk). IR23 sets out how the UK will, working with our network of partners, seek to meet the challenges we face.
Our main conclusion is that democracies like ours must go further and faster to address the threat posed by the states that are driving instability.
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IR23 confirms that the UK’s most pressing foreign policy priority is to address the threat posed by Russia. We had been clear since Brexit that we were leaving the EU but not leaving Europe. European security, and our role in Nato, remain critical to our national security. We as a nation and Nato as an alliance have stepped up to the challenge since February last year, as has the EU, of course, which we welcome. Our new Russia strategy began the moment Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine, waging an illegal assault on a sovereign European nation.
The UK has responded, providing huge quantities of military support for Ukraine’s defence, helping devise the international response, not least through Nato and the G7, and working with allies and partners, not least the EU, to impose our toughest ever sanctions on Putin’s government. We are clear that this cohesion and momentum must be maintained, to support Ukraine and ensure the threat from Russia is contained.
The IR Refresh also sets out a new approach to what it describes as the epoch-defining challenge presented by China, including the risks posed to the UK and like-minded countries’ prosperity and security. It recognises China’s size and significance on almost every global issue, but also is clear that we need to respond to the increasingly aggressive military and economic behaviour of the Chinese Communist Party, from threats to Taiwan to attempts to coerce countries from Lithuania to Australia.
The Refresh also emphasises that the UK needs to do more to build our own resilience to the new threats we face, including cyber threats, economic instability and energy shocks. That’s why it’s so relevant and important to work on these issues together with neighbours and friends. We’ve already started doing so with Ireland, on energy and cyber, as the Irish and British Ministers announced at the last British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in January.
More broadly, we want to continue to strengthen our diplomatic and security relationships across Europe. We will remain committed to playing a leading role in upholding the stability, security and prosperity of our continent and the Euro-Atlantic area as a whole. We want to move to the next stage of our post-Brexit future, building strong relationships with our European allies and partners based on values, reciprocity and cooperation across our shared interests. This includes, of course, the EU, with whom we seek to work closely – as we have done in response to Ukraine.
In all of this, we’re providing a further £5 billion for defence spending over the next two years; setting out a new ambition to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP in the longer term, leading a conversation with Nato allies on future posture and burden sharing; doubling our investment over the next year into better understanding China in all its dimensions, including Mandarin language training and in-depth understanding of economic and political developments – across government and in key British industries; and creating a new integrated security fund to deliver the objectives of the review. This will have an increased budget of £1 billion to deliver critical international and domestic programmes in areas including economic and cyber security, counter-terrorism and human rights.
It’s a cliché to say the world is more complex and contested than ever. But it’s true. So, for democracies like ours, internal coherence and external co-operation become ever more important. As the 2021 Integrated Review recognised, Ireland is a key partner for us in the shared challenge. – Yours, etc,
PAUL JOHNSTON,
UK Ambassador to Ireland,
Dublin 4.