Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the UK boosting defence spending

The UK and its NATO allies have agreed to increase spending on defence and related areas to 5 percent of GDP by 2035. 

Ambassadors of all 32 alliance member states signed off on the new spending pledge ahead of a major summit of leaders.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And Devin Gray are UK correspondents with US ay Kevin Hi.
So the spending on defense is going to go up
by quite a burst, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well, that's what has apparently been agreed. This is not
being confirmed, but this is diplomatic sources talking to Sky
News are saying that UK and NATO allies have agreed
to increase spending on defense and related areas to five
percent of GDP. Now that is a massive, massive increase.
The current goal of two percent of GDP is as
much about keeping the US president, I think, on side

(00:32):
as it is frankly about talking about what the allies
need in the growing threat from Russia and the challenge
post by China. Now it's thought that this new target
will be rubber stamped probably Tuesday or Wednesday later on
this week, so all rushing through. Really it's an ambitious
spending goal and secure following a big, big campaign by

(00:55):
the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutter. And it looks like
it's sort of broken down into three and a half
percent of GDP spent on pure defense, one and a
half percent of GDP spent on related areas that can
include cybersecurity, big infrastructure that sort of thing. Apparently everyone
had agreed except Spain. Spain was the last to agree.

(01:16):
But as I said, this is all unconfirmed at the moment.
We're waiting for some kind of announcement and five percent
spending will certainly please Donald Trump.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
I see you guys like us are sending a plane
over to get people out of the Middle East. But
how's the plane going to get to them?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, it looks like they're liaising with the Israeli government
over opening the airport for a specific few hours and
then trying to evacuate people in that time. So Britain's
are being asked to register in the flight via online
forms and they've been told not to travel to the
airport unless told to do so. And this is all

(01:54):
effectively about trying to get out those that want to
leave Israel. There will be plenty. I suspect you don't
want to leave, but there will be also others who do.
And we are slightly behind the curve here. Heather Austria's
Foreign ministry is set Around one hundred and twenty people,
including citizens of partner countries, have been evacuated from Iran
and Israel, with Israel temporarily reopening the airspace for six

(02:17):
hours yesterday in a scheme to repatriate citizens stranded under
its Operation Safe Return scheme. This is all for Tel
Aviv at the moment, the Chinese ambassador thought to be
doing something else. Around four hundred Chinese citizens evacuated at
the weekend, including students, and so I'm afraid that Europe

(02:38):
sort of seeming to leave it a bit late. But
that's what we're looking at here, and of course New
Zealand the same and trying to get that agreement from
the Israeli government on a timing to land those planes
and get people out.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Are we all moving to space then? Are we?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Well, it seems a little unlikely, but this is the
latest from the European Space Agency of the EESA. They
are saying that by twenty forty they fully expect that
humans could be living in quote self sustaining space oases.
What do they mean, Well, they believe that actually expanding

(03:14):
into space, according to this report quote is not a
luxury but a necessity. Space is no longer a frontier,
it's a territory and it unlocks unknown reserves. And I
think it's that unknown reserves which are what Europe getting
so excited about here. So what they're saying is no
longer will the buildings in space be limited by what
you can put in a rocket. Instead, they believe, and

(03:36):
I had to reread this, that communities will be capable
of being crafted by three D printers and then assembled
in space. It all sounds a bit far fetched to me,
particularly when you consider we are only talking fifteen years ago,
but they are now calling on European leaders to get
behind this drive and to get people into space soon.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Gevin probably wouldn't be You know, a lot of people
look at the situation right now in the Middle East
and think maybe space is not that bad. So thank
you for that. I appreciate it. Kevin, UK, correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
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