via Yahoo:
The Defence Secretary is set to pledge to send 20,000 British military personnel to a major Nato exercise in eastern Europe as he warns the post-Cold War “peace dividend” is at an end.
Grant Shapps will warn that “battle lines are being redrawn” as he announces the deployment of Army, Navy and RAF members to the drill on Russia’s borders in a speech in London.
It will be the largest deployment of British land forces to Nato since the height of the Cold War in 1984, a year before Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet leader.
This comes after Rishi Sunak announced that Britain’s military funding to Ukraine would be increased to £2.5 billion in the coming year and the Foreign Secretary warned of the growing threat from Iran, which is funding terrorists such as Hamas and the Houthis who have been attacking ships in the Red Sea.
The “peace dividend” refers to the period after the collapse of the Soviet Union when Western countries were able to reduce spending on defence.
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