Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / UK takes MAJOR action on NATO spending amid Trump pressure

Transcript

UK takes MAJOR action on NATO spending amid Trump pressure · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back. Ahead of this week's NATO summit in Turkey,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: President Trump is again blasting the alliance, arguing the US
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: bears too much of the financial burden for Europe's defense.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: For more, let's bring in the British Ambassador to the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: United States, Sir Christian Turner, Ambassador, thank you very much
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: for joining us. Thank you very much. Good to be
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: with you. You've got a big event going on next
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: week overseas. I'm sad to not be joining you this time.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I usually try to make it to those kind of things,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: but the NATO Secretary General came to Washington ahead of
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: time to try to smooth over any tensions. As you know, well,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: there's been a lot of raw feelings since Operation Epic Fury.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: By all measures, the US has already agreed to language
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: reaffirming Article five Collective Defense, but the President has made
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: his feelings personal feelings pretty clear. He posted a true
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: social The United States spends more money on NATO than
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: any other country by far to protect them without getting
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: any benefit from so doing. Ridiculous for the USA to
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: continue along this one sided path from the relationship is
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: not reciprocal. They were not there for US heading into
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the summit. You know, do you and other allies believe
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: this formal communicate or what the President is telling you directly.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: So I think we've heard the President loud and clear,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: and this is this is not a new message on
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: the need for burden sharing, and it's one that as
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Europeans we accept and as the UK we accept. So
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: just last week my Prime Minister Kirstarmer, the outgoing British
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister, announced a huge rise in our defense spending.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: It adds up to three hundred and ninety three billion
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: US over the next four to five years and puts
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: US on a path to reaching five percent of our
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: defense spend, which all native allies have committed to. So
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: for the UK, we're the third largest cash contributor to NATO.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: That three hundred and ninety three billion, they tell me,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: is enough to buy all thirty two NFL franchises. I
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: think McDonald's twice over. So it's a really significant investment
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: that we can't hide under a US to umbrella. We've
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: got to step up. As the President is saying, I
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: think you see that across Europe, Jackie, the alliance as
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: a whole, if you take out the US spending just
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five saw a twenty percent uplift in
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: its spending. That's I think about one hundred and thirty
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: billion US. So these are big numbers for our capability
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: for the modern threats we face.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: The counterpoint to that is that there's still a big
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: gap between that bump in defense spending and taking over
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: sort of primary responsibility for the defense of Europe and
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal reports that Secretary Hegseth was planning
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to drop this bombshell announcement that the US would withdraw
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: troops from Europe. It was obviously stopped down, apparently by
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the Secretary of State and some other senior officials, but
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the US ambassador to NATO indicated that this is not
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a settled matter and that's going to be part of
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: the discussion next week. Has the UK received any assurances
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: that a forced posture review at this point in time
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: is not going to measurably change, you know, deterrence in Europe.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: So the review, from my understanding and having talked to
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Secretary of Hegseth about, is a six months process. So
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: we want to go through that in a structured way
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: and have a proper look at how we work together
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: on what the proper laydown is for the Alliance as
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: a whole. And that's what allies need to do. They'll
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: come together an anchor, they'll talk through that, they'll look
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: at what it means for our impact and our overall
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: lay down. The threat here, let's be clear, it's Russia,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: it's Putin's actions on the eastern flank of NATO, and
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: we are absolutely rising to meet that with that defense
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: uplift I've described. So I'm confident we can engage with
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: our American partners and all the other allies. Jackie, and
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: let me take that to the Iran War and this
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: sense of frustration about the equipment of the Alliance. Over
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: four thousand American sorties flown from European bases in support
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: of Operation Epic Fury on the second night of the conflict.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: My country agreed for the use of its basis for
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: overflights and for bombing runs. We've flown in the Middle
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: East something like three thousand RAF jet fighters. So we
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: saw yesterday those beautiful pictures of the RAF over New York.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: You know, it's that air force that has been shooting
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: down drones and missiles alongside the US in the Middle East,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: and of course the deep intelligence base that sits under it,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: where the UK and US are so uniquely aligned.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: You bring up Putin and I want to ask you
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: about that, because you know, if the US does continue
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: down this course of sort of forcing Europe to pick
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: up the primary responsibility, why are there still sanctions loopholes
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: that are allowing Putin to fund his war machine? Boris
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Johnson said this week Western governments are doing nothing like
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: enough to bring him to the negotiating table. Why don't
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: we systematically take out the shadow fleet? Why won't we
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: give the Ukrainians the hundreds of billions of frozen assets?
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: And why the hell is the UK, of all countries
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: now buying Russian aviation fuel even if it has been
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: refined in third countries under a loophole recently approved by
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Cure Starmer is the biggest obstacle here, lack of resources
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: or lack of political will.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: We need both. We need resources and political will, and
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: I think former Prime Minister Johnson is making a very
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: important point that we've got to keep turning that economic pressure.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: What we're seeing is that Putin's economy is creaking. They
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: are really struggling. His all imports and gas imports. The
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: revenues from them are massively down. So it's exactly this
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: moment where we need to keep building that pressure. And
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: I think the President has heard that allowed and clear
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: made some very strong statements at every air. The figures
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: on the front line as well as Jackie, they are
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: they are devastating. I mean we think something like a
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: thousand casualties a day. That's thirty five thousand losses a month.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: These are sort of First World War figures. The Putin
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: seems prepared to just keep throwing in to a static
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: front line, so he is not winning. Let's be absolutely
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: clear about that. And with that economic pressure and pleased
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: to say on that refined oil product, my government has
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: announced that we're going to close that loophole. We've already
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: sanctioned something like three thousand, three hundred entities. A maritime
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: services ban is really debated. The shadow fleet. You've seen
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: British forces interdicting those shadow fleet tankers in the Channel
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: and elsewhere in the Atlantic. So we've really got to
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: close down these sources of revenue and get PEWT into
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: the negotiation table because at the minute, it's the Ukrainians
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: who are saying they're ready, they're willing to get to talks,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: and it's Putin who's refusing.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a big deal, and thank you for sharing
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: that news, sir, Christian Churnard's always great talking to you, sir,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: and thank you for coming in studio this speaking.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: It's a pleasure to be with you and happy two fifty.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, thank you so much.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Be sure to like and subscribe for all the Fox
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: News' latest on YouTube, and catch full shows streaming now
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: on Fox One.