LONDON (Reuters) – British finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Wednesday she would provide the defence ministry with an additional 2.9 billion pounds next year and promised an annual 3 billion-pound support for Ukraine would continue for “as long as it takes”.
In her first budget speech, Reeves said the extra spending would take Britain towards its goal of allocating 2.5% of GDP towards defence, and ensure the country exceeded the NATO commitment of spending 2%.
She added that the promise to maintain the annual military support to Ukraine came on top of a 2.26 billion pound loan, part of the G7’s Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration agreement announced last week, to aid the country in its war against Russia.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
