Updated security strategy and funding boost comes ahead of UK PM’s meeting with US president and Australian PM
Good morning. Rishi Sunak is in San Diego in California where today he will meet Joe Biden, the US president, and Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, for an Aukus meeting. Aukus is the Australia/US/UK security pact, primarily focused on providing Australia with nuclear-powered submarine. It was set up when Boris Johnson was prime minister, and now provides him with the material for one of his most over-used jokes.
The meeting will coincide with the publication of the government’s update (or “refresh”, as it is offically called) to the integrated review of security, defence, development and foreign policy first published in 2021. Liz Trus ordered the update during her short-lived premiership, because she wanted it to take a tougher line on China. IR23, as the “refresh” is also called by No 10, will be published this afternoon.
The 2023 integrated review refresh [IR23] confirms that an additional £5bn will be provided to the Ministry of Defence over the next two years, to help replenish and bolster vital ammunition stocks, modernise the UK’s nuclear enterprise and fund the next phase of the AUKUS submarine programme. It follows a £24bn four-year uplift in defence spending in 2020, the largest sustained increase since the Cold War.
The prime minister will also set out an ambition to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in the longer term, and the UK will lead a conversation with Allies on future posture and burden sharing at the NATO Summit in Lithuania this summer. We will review defence spending after 2025 in light of this ambition.
I don’t think it’s kind of smart or sophisticated foreign policy to reduce our relationship with China – which after all is a country with one and a half billion people, the second biggest economy, and member of the UN security council – to just two words.
That’s why in the integrated review you will see a very thoughtful and detailed approach to China …
