MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier this week, UK Prime Monster David Cameron presented a strategy which guarantees more investment in NATO, noting that the British defense budget is the second-largest in NATO after the United States, and the largest in the European Union.
"This is the strategy of an offended post-imperial power trying to look stronger than it is on the international stage and I oppose it from the first letter to the last letter. The security of the British people does not depend on the military alliance led by the United States," George Galloway said. "Britain's best option for security is to withdraw itself from the imperialist war machine that is NATO."
After an 8-percent cut since 2010, UK defense spending is expected to grow by 5 percent by 2020. London will allocate about 200 billion pounds ($300 billion) over the next ten years to strengthen its defense capabilities, including in the fight against terrorism.
Besides terrorism, the strategy envisages cooperating with Moscow, suggesting that the UK will seek to engage with Russia on global security issues. At the same time, the document stressed that the United Kingdom cannot rule out the possibility of possible Russian aggression against NATO allies.
Relations between Moscow and the West have deteriorated significantly since the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea reunified with Russia in 2014 following a referendum. Since then, NATO has been increasing its presence in Eastern Europe, as the West refused to recognize the results of the referendum and blamed Moscow for violating Ukraine's territorial integrity. Russia has repeatedly dismissed the allegations.
Russia and some NATO countries are currently engaged in countering Islamic State militants. While Britain has been launching anti-IS airstrikes as part of the United States-led coalition since 2014, Russia has begun conducting its own aerial campaign against the militants in Syria since September, following a request from Damascus.
