Starmer stresses ‘urgency’ of closer defence ties with Europe at Munich conference
Keir Starmer said there was an urgent need for a closer UK defence relationship with Europe, covering procurement and manufacturing, so that the UK would be at the centre of a stronger European defence setup,In a rare visit to the Munich Security Conference, the British prime minister told the audience, to applause, “we are 10 years on from Brexit,We are not the Britain of the Brexit years,”Starmer argued that the long-term threat posed by Russia and the need for Europe to take greater responsibility for its own defence required the UK to integrate more closely on defence procurement with European allies,The UK and France, often the country regarded as the most resistant to non-EU states accessing the European defence market, are both keen to reopen talks about the UK joining Security Action for Europe, an EU rearmament scheme, after discussions stalled last year over the cost of entry for the UK.
France has insisted the high cost of the UK’s proposed membership of the scheme was not due to French pressure, but a result of European Commission calculations, in which France played no part.Starmer is also examining the case for a European Defence Mechanism, which would be an intergovernmental instrument open to all European democracies, whether inside or outside the EU.Members of the proposed institution would finance joint procurement and joint assets across Europe.The idea has been promoted by the Bruegel institute and more recently by the former UK foreign secretary David Miliband.Starmer called Europe “a sleeping giant”.
“Our economies dwarf Russia’s more than 10 times over.We have huge defence capabilities, yet too often this adds up to less than the sum of its parts.Fragmented industrial planning and procurement have led to gaps in some areas and massive duplication in others,” he said, adding that the situation was “wildly inefficient and it harms our collective security.Now, the US security umbrella has allowed these bad habits to develop, but now we must break them.”He added: “There is no British security without Europe and no European security without Britain.
That is the lesson of history and is today’s reality as well.So together, we must rise to this moment.We must spend more, deliver more and coordinate more.”The new normal was for Europe to take primary responsibility for its own conventional diplomacy, he said.“Rather than pretending that we can simply replace all US capabilities, we should focus on diversifying and decreasing some dependencies.
We should deliver generational investments that moves us from overdependence to interdependence,“We see the imperative, we see the urgency,We want to work together to lead a generational shift in defence industrial cooperation,”He said he realised there was politics and trade-offs in moving closer to the EU single market, but “the status quo is not fit for purpose, and to me there’s no question where the national interest lies”,He stressed that a closer UK-EU defence relationship did not imply any weakening of the UK-US relationship, or the strength of Nato.
He described Nato “as the most effective defence alliance we have ever known and we should never move away from it”, adding that the security and intelligence relationship with the US “was [as] tight as it had ever been”.Greater European defence autonomy did not herald a US withdrawal from Nato, he said.But Starmer added that European leadership needed to be more honest with their electorates about how the world had changed, and that the cost of defence would rise.He insisted he had emerged from his turbulent week in domestic UK politics stronger than at the start, saying that was a good place to be.In reference to the rising popularity of other parties in the UK, Starmer said: “the peddlers of easy answers are ready on the extremes of left and right and they will offer their solutions instead.
It’s striking that the different ends of the spectrum share so much.Soft on Russia, weak on Nato, if not outright opposed, and determined to sacrifice the relationships we need on the altar of their ideology.“The future they offer is one of division and then capitulation.The lamps would go out across Europe once again.”
Scotland 31-20 England: Six Nations – as it happened
Rob Kitson’s report has landed so I’ll sign off.What a day of rugby that was. Two cracking games. I had so much fun calling them both for you. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did
‘A big call for the IOC’: is the fight over Olympic rowing on Australia’s predator-infested Fitzroy River all a croc?
An act of God cancelled rowing at the first Olympics of the modern age.But since stormy seas off Athens scuppered the sport in 1896, rowing has featured in every Games since.Now, the deputy premier of an Australian state appears to have threatened to upend what would be 136 years of history by scrapping rowing from the 2032 Brisbane Games – unless international Olympic and rowing officials agree to race on a river some have expressed concerns may not be up to standard, and one which is within the natural habitat of one of the most deadly predators on Earth: the saltwater crocodile.The Queensland infrastructure and planning minister, Jarrod Bleijie, raised the stakes on his government’s bid to have the central Queensland city of Rockhampton host rowing in 2032 on Wednesday, sending a message to the International Olympic Committee that there was no option other than the “mighty Fitzroy River”.“Rowing is gonna be in Rocky,” Bleijie said
Canada’s curling war of words with Sweden escalates after warning over ‘F-bomb’
The Canadian curler at the centre of a cheating row at the Winter Olympics has denied any wrongdoing, accusing the Swedish team of deliberately trying to “catch us in the act”.On Saturday, World Curling confirmed that Canada had escaped punishment despite being accused of breaking the rules in the 8-6 victory over Sweden on Friday night. However, the sport’s governing body did warn Canada about their abusive langugage and introduced emergency spot checks on Saturday afternoon to make sure teams were not cheating when releasing the stone.A bad-tempered game erupted when Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson told Canada’s Marc Kennedy he was double-touching the stone on the penultimate end, which led to Kennedy responding with an expletive.Speaking after Canada had lost 9-5 to Switzerland on Saturday afternoon, Kennedy insisted he was innocent of any wrongdoing
Two races, two golds: Jordan Stolz smashes another Olympic record in 500m
The men’s 500m is speed skating distilled to its most unforgiving form: one and a quarter laps of the oval, no pacing, no recovery window, no margin for technical compromise. On Saturday afternoon in Milan’s western suburbs, Jordan Stolz mastered the sport’s fastest and most unpredictable race and pushed his Olympic campaign toward historic territory.The 21-year-old American won the 500m in an Olympic-record 33.77 seconds, securing his second gold medal of the Milano Cortina Olympics and adding pace behind what is rapidly becoming one of the defining individual campaigns of these Winter Games.It also means Stolz has opened these Games with two races, two gold medals and two Olympic records
Ireland 20-13 Italy: Six Nations rugby union – as it happened
Time to sign off with Brendan Fanning’s report from the Aviva Stadium. Thanks for joining us. Until next time …A huge game at Murrayfield, with kick-off in 10 minutes time …Some post-game reaction from Cormac Izuchukwu, via RTÉ. “We needed more fight and edge about us [after losing to France], and we showed that in the second half. It was tough this week, maybe we pushed too much
Baloucoune spares Ireland’s Six Nations blushes as they recover to see off Italy
After what felt like 40 days and 40 nights of darkness and rain, the sun came out in Dublin. Cold, yes, and a grey day by kick-off, but bright enough to throw light on an Ireland side scrambling for their footing, and a bullish Italy one looking to break new ground.Neither quite worked out. Never having won a Six Nations game in Dublin might be the sort of statistic to weigh you down but the Azzurri carried it here like a backpack with only a couple of bits and bobs. What they achieved was to give the Championship a highly competitive performance that was heartening, but not worthy of a note in history
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