Nato’s military chief has urged Britain and other allies to speed up the delivery of their defence pledges. 

Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, Nato’s military committee chair, said he is “frustrated” by the UK and its allies’ commitments to spend on defence which he said do not stand if there is no equipment to show for it. 

Dragone added that he is “unsatisfied” with the empty defence promises. 

Prime minister Keir Starmer is believed to be weighing tax hikes to fund the long-delayed Defence Investment Plan (DIP), which is estimated to be providing between £15bn and £18bn of funding. 

Starmer’s proposals will be outlined in the DIP to meet his pledge to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on core defence by 2035, a promise made at the Hague last year after pressure from President Trump to increase contributions to Nato’s collective defence.

The DIP will outline how Starmer plans to meet his 3.5 per cent GDP defence spending target he pledged to hit by 2035. He promised the boost at the Hague last year after President Trump pressured allies to increase their Nato defence contributions.

Defence secretary John Healey last month said defence investment is Starmer’s “highest priority” as officials await the DIP.

Speaking at the Shangri-La defence summit in Singapore where international officials and military chiefs met to discuss issues, Dragone told The Sunday Times that the UK and other members of the alliance need to “speed up” defence mechanisms. 

“With percentages, with numbers, or even with dollars or euros, you don’t deter anybody. You deter someone with capabilities, which is the real delivery of hardware,” Dragone said. 

He added that nato needs “to get capabilities faster and faster, because time is against us”, and that in procurement, “we are late.”

Margus Tsahkna, the Estonian foreign minister, also speaking to the Sunday Times, agreed with Dragone’s concerns.

“The UK needs to, of course, increase defence spending. I think that unfortunately it won’t be the last drone we will see in Nato territory,” Tsahkna said.

UK US military relationship ‘meaningless’

This follows US defence secretary of war Peter Hegseth on Saturday at the same summit claiming that European allies are “freeloading” off America and said the country’s relationship with the UK is “meaningless” unless it matches it’s military capabilities.

“You can’t just say, ‘Oh, we’ve been friends for a long time, so let’s work together,’” Hegseth said.

“It’s: ‘We’ve been friends for a long time, so you better have the same capabilities we do, because if we don’t, our alliance is meaningless,'” he added.