Burnham pledges to raise defense spending to 3% of GDP by 2030

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to raise the country's defense spending to 3% of GDP by 2030. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.

Earlier, the Financial Times reported that UK Finance Minister John Healey would abandon the goal of spending 3% of GDP on defense by 2030 due to a funding shortfall. Healey had set this goal when he was Defense Minister.

"I took on this commitment long ago and have long made my position abundantly clear. Last week I was in Ukraine to announce the same commitment on the world stage," Burnham said.

Earlier, The Telegraph reported that it is still unclear where the Finance Ministry will find the funds needed for additional defense financing.

At the end of June, the UK military department published a long-term defense budget for the next four years. The document allocates about 300 billion pounds sterling (400 billion dollars) for the development of various sectors of the military-industrial complex.