UK announces £75B defense boost — and challenges Europe to follow suit

WARSAW — The U.K. promised to pump an extra £75 billion into its defense budget over the next six years in a move that will take its spending well above a crucial NATO target and pile pressure on European allies to follow suit.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said during a trip to Poland Tuesday that the new package is the “biggest strengthening of our national defense for a generation," while his office argued it "sets a new standard for other major European NATO economies to follow."

The move will see the U.K. spend the equivalent of 2.5 percent of GDP per year on defense by the end of the decade — something which had previously been only a vague ambition for the country when resources allow.

The commitment, which Sunak insisted would not require spending cuts or tax rises, would bring the U.K.’s annual defense spending to £87 billion in 2030-31.

NATO countries are expected to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense, with 18 members currently on track to do so. Germany hit that target for the first time this year. Former U.S. president and current candidate Donald Trump has suggested he wouldn't protect countries failing to hit the target if they're attacked, reigniting debate about defense spend in Europe.

In a statement accompanying Sunak's announcement, No.10 Downing Street said: "If all NATO countries committed at least 2.5 percent of their GDP to defense, our collective budget would increase by more than £140 billion.”

The new package will include an investment of an extra £10 billion over the next decade on munitions production and "radical" reforms of Britain's defense procurement procedures, the British government said. It's also vowing a new "Defence Innovation Agency" to boost military research and development.

“Today is a turning point for European security and a landmark moment in the defense of the United Kingdom," Sunak said.

The announcement comes after POLITICO reported that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was preparing to ask Sunak to up Britain's defense spending in a bilateral meeting tomorrow.

Sunak's language Tuesday mirrors Scholz's after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when the German chancellor branded his country's increase defense investment as a"zeitenzwende" — German for "turning point."

Britain's opposition Labour Party — on course for government on current polling — has yet to respond to the pledge. Leader Keir Starmer previously said his party would increase defense spending to 2.5 percent of GDP "as soon as resources allow that to happen," but has not committed to a timeframe for doing so.

This developing story is being updated.