The Prime Minister hosted NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at Downing Street this afternoon.
The Prime Minister began by updating on the UK’s new NATO-first Strategic Defence Review, announced last week, which underscored the UK’s steadfast commitment to the Alliance.
NATO was vital to the security of working people in the UK and had been the cornerstone of Euro-Atlantic peace and security for more than eight decades, the Prime Minister added.
Turning to the upcoming summit in The Hague, the leaders agreed that NATO was more united than ever, but Allies still needed to go further and faster to ensure stability and security and reinforce defence industries for the future.
The NATO Secretary General said that approach had been brought to life for him during his visit to Sheffield Forgemasters earlier in the day, where he had heard from a man who had faced losing his job, but through a new government contract for the production of artillery barrels for the first time in almost two decades, was now training his team in a skillset that could have been lost.
That exemplified the importance of embracing rapid innovation, while fostering the skills and lessons learned across the past 80 years, the leaders agreed.
The leaders also discussed future funding proposals for NATO and underscored the importance of going further to step up on national resilience and protect critical national infrastructure. The Prime Minister welcomed the Secretary General’s focus on ensuring the Alliance was fit for the future.
The leaders looked forward to speaking again at the upcoming G7 summit.
