UK Defence Secretary, John Healey would travel to meet his Norwegian counterpart as Europe is thrown into turmoil over the future of Ukraine and the continent’s wider security.
Healey and Tore Sandvik will meet as European leaders plot their next steps to ramp up defence spending in the face of pressure from the U.S..
America and Russia have kicked off talks to broker a peace in Ukraine, led by U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Ukraine was not invited to the negotiations which took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and concluded with ground rules set for further diplomacy.
European countries were also locked out of the gathering, and are facing calls from U.S. President Donald Trump and his Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, to increase their defence spendings.
They shoulder more of the financial burdens of supporting Kyiv.
Following an emergency meeting of European leaders, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged Trump to provide a security guarantee to any Ukraine peace settlement.
It insisted that it was the only way to deter Russia from attacking the country again.
The Prime Minister said, he had prepared to deploy British troops as part of a peacekeeping force.
But other countries at Monday’s gathering, including Germany, resisted calls for European forces to be deployed to monitor a ceasefire.
On Tuesday, Defence Secretary Healey said details of a U.S. security guarantee for Ukraine are being developed and decisions made in the next few weeks would define “the security of our world for a generation.’’
“We’re in a new era of threat, and that demands a new era for defence, and in the middle of everything else, last week, the new defence secretary, Pete Hegseth from the U.S. and I, made time to discuss the aims we share on defence reform,’’ he added.
The Defence Secretary further stated that European nations know they need to step up on spending and have been doing just that.
Economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies have warned that increasing the UK’s defence spending while maintaining other public services is likely to require additional tax rises by the UK government.
Ministers have repeatedly said that they would wait until the conclusion of the strategic defence review before they outline how they will meet their commitments.
They are to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product, a measure of national economic output. (dpa/NAN)
