The Communist Party‘s International secretary John Foster told the CP Political Committee on Wednesday evening (23 June 2021) that while the Conservative government is preparing real-terms cuts to the budgets needed for a post-COVID recovery, military spending will jump by 20% over the next two years. He strongly condemned the government’s decision last week to sail the guided-missile warship HMS Defender (pictured) inside Crimean territorial waters directly opposite Russia’s Sevastopol naval base.
“This is yet another instance of the Johnson government’s reckless disregard for international conventions as well as its wider participation in NATO’s dangerous military build-up in eastern Europe and off the coast of China“, Mr Foster declared. The flaunting of this £1.2 billion warship also symbolised, he said, the government’s failure to grasp people’s anger at its failure to respond to the suffering and destruction caused by its mishandling of the COVID pandemic.
The CP reaffirmed its call for the Labour Party leadership to oppose NATO war games and develop instead an independent foreign and defence policy for Britain.
Challenge News Desk
