The NATO flag will fly above Downing Street today (Monday) as the
Alliance marks 73 years since its foundation. The banner will
also be raised up flagpoles in the UK’s NATO deployments from the
HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier in the north, to Estonia in
the east and our RAF patrols in Romania in the south.
The Alliance has faced its biggest test in recent weeks as Russia
continues its campaign of violence and aggression against the
people of Ukraine. NATO members have responded to that hostility
with a display of overwhelming solidarity.
We have deployed more troops, ships and aircraft to protect our
people, and provided weapons to the people of Ukraine which are
helping to turn the tide in Putin’s brutal war. As the leading
European contributor to NATO, the UK has been at the forefront of
this action.
The UK has directly supplied 6,000 missiles, 4,000 anti-tank
weapons including NLAWs and Javelin missiles, and Starstreak
anti-aircraft missiles to bolster Ukrainian defences. Last week
the Defence Secretary hosted a meeting of 30 countries from
across NATO and beyond to coordinate future military aid to
Ukraine.
Today the Government has announced that one of the Prime
Minister’s top foreign policy advisors will be the UK’s next
Permanent Representative to NATO. David Quarrey, who was
previously the Deputy National Security Advisor, will take
forward the work on the response to the unfolding crisis in
Ukraine and the future of the Alliance.
This week the Prime Minister will welcome Polish President Duda
and German Chancellor Scholz as he galvanises the tough and
decisive response from allies to the horrors being inflicted in
Ukraine.
The Prime Minister said:
“73 years ago, today the founding members of NATO came together,
united loosely by geography but bound more tightly by a shared
belief in freedom and sovereignty. Three quarters of a century
later that conviction and drive endures.
“It is that self-same freedom which the people of Ukraine are
fighting for with every fibre of their being. As members of the
greatest security alliance in the history of the world, we have a
responsibility to give them everything they need to face down
this barbaric attempt to subjugate the Ukrainian people.
“As the largest European contributor to the Alliance and as a
staunch friend to Ukraine, the UK will continue to do just that.”
As part of the NATO response to Putin’s hostility, the UK has
doubled our troop presence in Estonia, deployed HMS Trent and HMS
Diamond to the Eastern Mediterranean and sent RAF Typhoons to
patrol the skies of Romania and Poland.
HMS Trent is in the eastern Mediterranean, conducting NATO
exercises with Merlin Helicopters and RAF P8 Poseidon Maritime
Patrol Aircraft. They will be shortly joined by HMS Diamond, a
Type 45 destroyer, which set sail from Portsmouth yesterday.
