The $9bn two-year increase will help fund the AUKUS submarine program, and replenish dwindling stockpiles of munitions sent to Ukraine.
UK military spending will hit 2.2 per cent of its GDP this year, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has set a new “aspiration” of lifting this to 2.5 per cent - the same figure thatSettling the bill ... prime ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak in San Diego for the AUKUS announcement.
“Unless democracies like our own do more to build our resilience, and out-cooperate and out-compete those that are driving instability, the global security situation will deteriorate further,” he said.Although trans-Atlantic security would remain Britain’s “overriding priority”, Mr Sunak called out the strategic threat from China in much bolder terms than he has used before.
AUKUS is not the only military procurement partnership Britain has recently signed with an Indo-Pacific power: last December, Britain joined Japan and Italy in the Global Combat Air Program, under which they plan to co-develop a sixth-generation fighter jet. Britain’s “prioritisation” of the Indo-Pacific - the word “tilt” has now been abandoned - also includes extra spending on its capabilities to both counter and cooperate with China, and plans to coordinate with France on carrier deployments in the Indo-Pacific.
The report also noted the increasing spillover from military and geopolitical tensions into the global economy. This had been seen in areas including: export controls on microchips; efforts to cut potentially unfriendly countries out of key supply chains; and, tensions over energy.Global challenges were also spilling into domestic politics, in everything from the cost-of-living crisis to surging illegal migration and the increased threat of cyber attacks.
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