Time for the West to wake-up to threats posed by autocratic states - Grant Shapps

Now, wind the clock forward to today and Russia and other autocratic states are using that very same playbook. Ruthless rule-breaking, narrow self-interest, this time not just for sport but to advance their strategic, political and economic goals.

In January, in my Lancaster House speech, I warned that the world had moved from a post-war to a pre-war era. An axis of authoritarian states led by Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea have escalated and fuelled conflicts and tensions. They have increasingly been working together. As we saw from Putin’s state visit to Beijing and the 64 per cent growth in trade between Russia and China since the full-scale invasion…they’re covering each other’s back. But this isn’t some distant problem.

Attacks on Iranian journalists and Ukrainian-linked businesses right here in London. Apparent intelligence operations targeting Border Force and parliamentary staff and cyber-attacks on government, business, and our critical national infrastructure…all of that puts Britain on the frontline of malign activity.

In response to this continuing hostility and our more dangerous world, the UK has been at the forefront, backed up by our actions and our resources. We are leading by example.

Specifically, the government has committed to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030. Injecting a £75bn cash boost into our defence budget over the next six years.

We have increased our support to Ukraine, giving our largest ever gift of military equipment since this war started. We’ve also increased our military aid to £3bn and we’ve also committed to do that year after year, at the very least until the end of the decade.

When it comes to strengthening our collective deterrence no one has done as much as Putin.

Because, the single most obvious outcome of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has been NATO’s expansion to 32 members with Finland and Sweden joining in the last year.

Plus, members everywhere are spending more money on our collective deterrence with two-thirds now on track to meet the 2 per cent spending target this year.

Yet despite the undoubted progress, I do not believe we have collectively gone far enough.

The democratic world is saying the right things and mostly doing the right things but not on the scale, or with the pace, that this critical moment demands.

And we must be realistic that, while our alliances are strong, many nations continue to sit on the fence, hedging their bets or worse, are only too happy to provide an alternative market for Russian oil and energy.

Putin and his autocratic allies in Beijing, Pyongyang, and Tehran have been emboldened by 25 years of Western timidity towards their repression at home, and aggression abroad.

It’s time for the world to wake-up.

An abridged version of a speech by Defence Secretary Grant Shapps at the London Defence Conference last month.