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The Baltic Is NATO’s New Front Line Historical analyses of European security have tended to relegate the Baltic region to the sidelines, focusing instead on major players, such as Britain, France, Germany and the Mediterranean states Robert Wihtol, The Strategist (ASPI)

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British leader’s complacency on defense puts country ‘in peril,’ former NATO chief warns

By

Ivana Kottasová

Updated 2 hr ago

It’s not just the US President Donald Trump criticizing the British prime minister for being weak on defense. On Tuesday his own adviser George Robertson joined in, accusing Keir Starmer of a “corrosive complacency” that puts the United Kingdom “in peril.”

Speaking to the Financial Times Robertson, a former NATO chief, said there was a gap between Starmer’s rhetoric and his actions. He said the prime minister was unwilling to make the necessary investment to keep the UK safe, choosing instead to put money into “ever expanding welfare budget.”

Robertson is a key government adviser whom Starmer commissioned to conduct a strategic review of UK defense when he took over as prime minister after 14 years of Conservative rule.

When the review came out last year, Robertson and his two co-authors, Gen. Richard Barrons, former head of the Joint Forces Command, and Fiona Hill, a former senior director at the US National Security Council, were clear: decades of cuts and underinvestment have left the UK dangerously unprepared for a conflict.

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