During his speech at the Munich Security Conference, the prime minister Keir Starmer said Europe must be ready to fight as it faces a growing threat from Russia
The UK will deploy its carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and High North region this year, Sir Keir Starmer has announced. During his speech at the Munich Security Conference, the prime minister said Europe must be ready to fight as it faces a growing threat from Russia.
In his speech, the Prime Minister told the conference hall: “Now we feel the solidity of peace, the very ground that we stand on softening under our feet. It’s the job of leaders to be ahead of these seismic shapes, yet that is against the grain of history.”
He said leaders must not dither as “Russia has proved its appetite for aggression”. He continued that after a peace deal for Ukraine, “Russia’s rearmament would only accelerate” and “we must answer this threat in full”.
“To break the convention of a thousand speeches, we are not at a crossroads. The road ahead is straight and it is clear. We must build our hard power, because that is the currency of the age.
“We must be able to deter aggression , and, yes, if necessary, we must be ready to fight.”
Sir Keir is rubbing shoulders with about 50 world leaders at the Munich Security Conference, where he has already met with Germany’s Friedrich Merz, France’s Emmanuel Macron, and joined the Ukraine meeting alongside its president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
He insisted the UK would honour the Nato commitment to defend its allies if called upon. One of the alliance’s founding principles, Article 5, is that an attack on one Nato member is an attack on all.
The Prime Minister told the conference: “I can announce today that the UK will deploy our carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and the High North this year, led by HMS Prince of Wales, operating alongside the US, Canada and other Nato allies in a powerful show of our commitment to Euro-Atlantic security.”
The deployment comes following US President Donald Trump’s assertion earlier this year that he wants to take over Greenland.
Mr Trump has claimed he does not believe Denmark, of which Greenland is a territory, does not do enough to defend it from threats by Russia and China.
European nations rallied to Denmark’s side amid the suggestion the US could annex Greenland.
Nato can only be preserved if Europe takes more responsibility for its defence, Starmer has said.
In a moderated question and answer session after his speech in Munich, the Prime Minister said: “Europe hasn’t done enough for its own defence and security for many years, the conflict in Ukraine has flushed that out, shown it to be the reality, and it falls to us as leaders to recognise that, to change and strengthen Europe.”
He continued: “We will only be able to preserve Nato in the way it is needed for the next 80 years if we change and strengthen the European dimension.”
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