PRESS RELEASE : Armed Forces minister hails unity of support for Ukraine and Black Sea security during Europe visits [May 2024]

The press release issued by the Ministry of Defence on 9 May 2024.

Armed Forces minister has met with defence leaders and military chiefs in Romania and Bulgaria. This follows the UK government announcing a further £500m in military support for Ukraine and to increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.

• Armed Forces minister met defence leaders and military chiefs in Romania and Bulgaria
• Follows UK government announcing a further £500m in military support for Ukraine and to increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP
• Minister visits UK troops deployed on Operation Biloxi, the UK’s contribution to NATO’s enhanced air policing missing in Romania

Working together to strengthen collective security in the Black Sea and the urgency of increasing military support for Ukraine were the focus of visits by the Minister for the Armed Forces to Romania and Bulgaria this week.

In a series of meetings with defence ministers and military chiefs in Bucharest and Sofia on Wednesday and Thursday, Minister Leo Docherty highlighted the UK’s recent commitment of a further half a billion pounds to provide urgent additional military support for Ukraine.

He also highlighted the Prime Minister’s recent commitment to increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in 2030, emphasising the importance of NATO member states following the UK’s lead in investing in their Armed Forces to help deliver stability and deter against potential threats.

Minister for the Armed Forces, Leo Docherty, said:

Putin’s illegal invasion has strengthened defence relationships between democratic countries across Europe and united us in support of Ukraine and freedom.

To uphold the rules-based international order, protect our daily freedoms and deter against potential threats, it is important like-minded nations band together and invest more to ensure our collective security.

In my meetings with defence ministers and chiefs in Romania and Bulgaria, I emphasised how the UK is increasing military support for Ukraine as part of the international effort to ensure Putin fails and democracy prevails.

The Minister’s visits began on Wednesday when he met UK personnel working at the International Donor Coordination Centre in Wiesbaden, Germany, through which the logistics of military aid deliveries to Ukraine are organised.

He then travelled to Bucharest, where he held meetings with Romanian Minister of National Defense Angel Tîlvăr, State Secretary for Defence Policy, Simona Cojocaru, and Chief of Defence, General Gheorghiță Vlad.

The UK is currently contributing six Typhoon fighter jets and more than 200 Royal Air Force aviators to defend Romania’s airspace as part of Operation Biloxi – the UK’s contribution to NATO’s enhanced air policing mission in southern Europe. Minister Docherty met personnel deployed for the next three months as part of the mission.

After travelling to Sofia, the minister met Bulgarian Defence Minister, Atanas Zapryanov, Chief of Defence Admiral, Emil Eftimov, and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ivan Kondon.

He then delivered a keynote speech at Bulgaria’s National Defence College, where he hailed the growing defence relationship between the UK and Bulgaria, as set out through the signing of a 2018 Defence Declaration and further symbolised through the UK’s first deployment to Bulgaria as part of a NATO mission in 2022.

NATO forms the bedrock of our shared security with like-minded countries in the North Atlantic and Europe, and the UK’s £75 billion defence uplift over the next six years will ensure it remains the biggest defence spender in Europe.