Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that the UK’s NATO defence and security obligations are fulfilled to counter the threats from Russia.

NATO is the cornerstone of UK and Euro-Atlantic security, and our support for the Alliance is ironclad. NATO is a defensive Alliance, and remains open to dialogue with Russia. But Russia's current actions pose the most serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security, and so we must also adjust our posture to strengthen deterrence and defence across the Euro-Atlantic area. The UK is the largest European defence spender within NATO, a position strengthened by our recent increase of over £24 billion over the next four years. The UK spends 2.29% of its GDP on Defence, and 24.3% of this goes towards major equipment and associated research and development. This exceeds the respective 2% and 20% targets laid out within NATO's Defence Investment Pledge. In addition to meeting the 2% guideline every year since its introduction in 2006, our relative spending as a proportion of GDP is also the 4th highest amongst all 30 Allies.

At this time of unprovoked and unjustified Russian aggression in Ukraine, we are bolstering support for our Eastern European Allies in line with our commitments to collective security through NATO. We are doubling the number of our defence personnel in Estonia, and have sent further Typhoon jets to Cyprus to supplement NATO patrols over Eastern Europe. HMS Trent is currently conducting patrols in the Eastern Mediterranean alongside NATO Allies, and will soon be joined by a Type 45 Destroyer. This is all in addition to the 350 Royal Marines we have sent to Poland, and the 1,000 military personnel we have placed on standby to assist in any humanitarian response to events in Ukraine. We have also deployed humanitarian experts to NATO Allies Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.