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Britain's Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, has dismissed Vladimir Putin's assurances that Russia does not want war with Europe, arguing that Europe cannot take those assurances at face value while Moscow continues its war against Ukraine. Speaking to reporters in Glasgow, Streeting said Putin claims he is not interested in war in Europe while he is currently waging one, and recalled that Moscow gave Ukraine assurances it had no plans to invade only weeks before the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Streeting said Britain does not seek confrontation with Russia and has no quarrel with the Russian people, but that in the current climate Britain has to invest and be ready. Investment in capability, in the defence industrial base and in alliances makes Britain stronger, he said, and the stronger the deterrence, the less likely Britain and NATO are to find themselves at war.
The Glasgow remarks follow a similar warning Streeting gave in Warsaw on October 27, alongside Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, when he said Britain and NATO must be prepared for a scenario in which they find themselves at war with Russia. He stressed then that NATO is a defensive alliance, that it would defend every inch of NATO territory, and that it would continue to support Ukraine, while accusing the Kremlin of coordinating state-sponsored terrorism and hybrid threats against NATO members.
Streeting also said he does not believe Putin would be foolish enough to seek a direct war with NATO today, but added that he cannot be certain that at some point in the future he might not try, and that this is NATO's threat assessment. That, he said, is why Britain is building its capability, its defence industry and its alliances.
Putin responded to Streeting's earlier warnings on October 30, saying Russia is ready for war with Europe but does not want one, that there would be no winners if such a conflict broke out, and that he thinks war between Russia and Europe by 2030 is highly unlikely. Russia maintains that its actions are driven by security concerns and disputes Western portrayals of the war.
Streeting has previously put the same point about Ukraine in blunt terms, saying Putin is the person who chose to start the war, that he is the person who could end it tomorrow and chooses not to, and that Britain stands with Ukraine and with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Glasgow visit, at the BAE Systems yard in Scotstoun, also saw the announcement of a new offsets policy for large overseas defence contracts and came days after the Budget set a target of defence spending reaching three per cent of gross domestic product by 2030, with three and a half per cent by 2035. Streeting has warned Britain has around a thousand days to be ready to fight and win a war if deterrence fails.