Voices: It’s time the UK increased defence spending – to wartime levels
On 4 April 1949, 12 nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty and founded the world’s most successful and enduring military alliance.
Seventy-five years later, Nato has 32 members, including a dozen democracies we rescued from Soviet domination. Our territory stretches from the Russian border to the Alaskan peninsula and from the Arctic to the Mediterranean.
We have three of the five permanent seats on the UN Security Council. With our Pacific allies, we represent 40 per cent of the world economy, half of international development aid and 60 per cent of global expenditure. That political, economic and military might could overwhelm any potential hostile combination.
