{"id":676639,"date":"2026-07-06T12:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T12:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/676639\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T12:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T12:15:11","slug":"starmer-faces-likely-row-at-nato-summit-after-us-rebuke-on-defence-spending-defence-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/676639\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer faces likely row at Nato summit after US rebuke on defence spending | Defence policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer is likely to face a diplomatic row at his final major international summit this week after Washington\u2019s ambassador to Nato called for alliance members who are \u201clagging behind\u201d on defence spending to step up.<\/p>\n

The prime minister is due to arrive in Ankara on Tuesday for the annual Nato summit, where the UK commitment will be under scrutiny following the release<\/a> of the government\u2019s defence investment plan (Dip) last week.<\/p>\n

While this produced an extra \u00a315bn for defence, the increase as a proportion of GDP will rise slowly, going from 2.6%in 2027 to 2.7% by 2030, with the intended \u201ctrajectory\u201d to hit 3% in the next parliament.<\/p>\n

Under a plan agreed<\/a> at last year\u2019s Nato summit in The Hague, members agreed to reach at least 3.5% of GDP by 2035, as part of a total of 5% on defence and \u201cdefence-and security-related spending\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Sunday night, Matt Whitaker, the US ambassador to Nato<\/a>, said certain Nato members were not moving fast enough: \u201cSome allies are doing more than others. Poland, the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries lead the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut many others are lagging behind, and President Trump expects all allies to step up immediately and not only get on a sustainable path to the 5% but to get to 5% as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer will know that Whitaker and his US colleagues view the UK as being among the stragglers. There is also uncertainty about what might happen when Andy Burnham<\/a>, as is likely, takes over as prime minister later this month.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend the new defence secretary, Dan Jarvis, who took the post after John Healey quit last month<\/a> over the Dip, called on Burnham<\/a> to increase defence spending dramatically from 2030 and \u201cevidence the trajectory\u201d towards the Nato target.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I absolutely will want to see is that in the next spending review we commit the resources to evidence the trajectory to 3.5%,\u201d Jarvis said ahead of the Nato summit in Turkey.<\/p>\n

Jarvis, who is keen to remain in post, has been in contact with Burnham and his team already to discuss defence priorities and the Dip.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Andy for a very long time and I have not a shred of doubt that as prime minister he will make sure that we\u2019ve got the resources that we need at a point of challenge,\u201d Jarvis said.<\/p>\n

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It comes after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that British F-35 fighter jets were forced to intercept a Russian plane which had flown close to the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier at low altitude in the Norwegian Sea.<\/p>\n

The MoD statement said the UK ship was \u201cwas repeatedly approached by a Russian \u2018Bear-F\u2019 maritime patrol aircraft\u201d, which dropped sonar devices in the water near the carrier.<\/p>\n

It added: \u201cThis activity was unsafe and unprofessional. The Russian aircraft was intercepted and escorted by two UK F-35 jets from HMS Prince of Wales until it left the area.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer is likely to face a diplomatic row at his final major international summit this week after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-676639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}