It is “absolutely crucial” that Europe steps up and spends more for defense, so the United Kingdom is making its largest increase in defense spending since the end of the Cold War, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves told Newsmax on Thursday.

“We are injecting the largest increase in defense spending since the end of the Cold War, an extra 2.2 billion pounds just this year and then reaching 2.5% of our GDP by 2027,” Reeves told “Wake Up America.”

She added that the U.K. wants to drive value while supporting tech businesses with the “newest ideas to better equip our armed forces” in tandem with increasing what it spends on defense in Europe to meet its challenges.

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