Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, NATO’s military committee chair, has urged Britain and its allies to accelerate the delivery of their defence pledges.
Dragone said he is “frustrated” by the UK and its allies’ commitments to spend on defence, which he said do not stand if there is no equipment to show for it.
He added that he is “unsatisfied” with what he described as empty defence promises from alliance members.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is believed to be weighing tax hikes to fund the long-delayed Defence Investment Plan, which is estimated to provide between £15bn and £18bn of funding.
Starmer’s proposals will be outlined in the Defence Investment Plan to meet his pledge to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on core defence by 2035.
That promise was made at the Hague after pressure from President Trump on allies to increase their contributions to NATO’s collective defence.
Defence Secretary John Healey last month said defence investment is Starmer’s “highest priority” as officials continue to await the Defence Investment Plan.
Speaking at the Shangri-La defence summit in Singapore, Dragone told The Sunday Times that the UK and other alliance members need to “speed up” defence mechanisms.
“With percentages, with numbers, or even with dollars or euros, you don’t deter anybody. You deter someone with capabilities, which is the real delivery of hardware,” Dragone said.
He added that NATO needs “to get capabilities faster and faster, because time is against us,” and that in procurement, “we are late.”
Margus Tsahkna, the Estonian foreign minister, also speaking to The Sunday Times, agreed with Dragone’s concerns about the pace of defence spending.
“The UK needs to, of course, increase defence spending. I think that unfortunately it won’t be the last drone we will see in NATO territory,” Tsahkna said.
The comments follow US Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth claiming at the same summit that European allies are “freeloading” off America and that the relationship with the UK is “meaningless” unless it matches its military capabilities.
“It’s: ‘We’ve been friends for a long time, so you better have the same capabilities we do, because if we don’t, our alliance is meaningless,'” Hegseth added.