Shapps, who became Defense Secretary last year, noted in his first public speech at an event in London's historic Lancaster House that the West is dealing with a "much more troubled world" than it has since the end of the Cold War and it could no longer be categorized as "post-war."
"We find ourselves at the dawn of this new era – the [fall of the] Berlin Wall is a distant memory – and we've come full circle, moving from a post-war to a pre-war world," said Shapps.
"An age of idealism has been replaced by a period of hard-headed realism," he continued. "Today, our adversaries are busily rebuilding their barriers. Old enemies are reanimated. New foes are taking shape. Battle lines are being drawn."
Shapps claimed that the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East are forerunners of future deadlier strife, with the "era of the peace dividend" which came to be with the end of the Cold War being truly over.
"The era of the peace dividend is over," said Shapps. "In five years time, we could be looking at multiple theaters [of conflict] involving Russia, China, Iran and North Korea."
"Ask yourself, looking at today's conflicts around the world, is it more likely that [the number of ongoing conflicts] grows or reduces?" he continued. "I suspect we all know the answer: It's likely to grow, so 2024 must mark an inflection point."
Shapps calls for more defense spending
In his wide-ranging address, Shapps called on members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to increase their defense spending to at least two percent of their gross domestic product – a commitment that all NATO members agreed to back in 2006. Only 11 of the 31 NATO members have reached this target as of 2023 – Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the U.K., the United States and new NATO member Finland.
"We made the critical decision to set out our aspiration to reach 2.5 percent of GDP on defense, and as we stabilize and grow this economy, we'll continue to strive to reach that as soon as possible," said Shapps. The U.K. is currently spending around 2.1 percent of its GDP on defense. "Now is the time for all allied and democratic nations across the world to do the same thing and ensure their defense spending is growing too." (Related: Unable to recruit more troops, undermanned British Royal Navy forced to DECOMMISSION WARSHIPS.)
In the short term, Shapps said the West must continue to aid Ukraine, where Russia has already "parked its tanks." To let Ukraine fall to Moscow would supposedly reward President Vladimir Putin's special military operation in the country and send a signal to the world that the West is weak – a signal that Shapps claims China would be all too ready to pounce on.
He further noted that North Korea is supplying Moscow with missiles and ammunition, Iran is providing arms and technology to Russia and also increasing hostilities through proxy forces in the Middle East. And in all this, China is watching to see the West's reaction.
"China is assessing whether the West loses its patience," said Shapps.
Shapps also foresees further military clashes in the Red Sea region, where the U.S. and the U.K. are leading a coalition of nations patrolling the sea with warships. Britain and America have also escalated tension by carrying out airstrikes against Houthi positions within Yemen.
And with continued attacks against the Houthis, their main ally and supporter – Iran – will likely retaliate. Shapps hopes continued attacks against the Houthis will have the opposite effect on Tehran.
"We see that the connection [between Iran and the Houthis] is very clear," said Shapps. "We really want Tehran … to be reining in these proxies who are trained by Iran, equipped by Iran, often [with] intelligence passed to them by Iran. We want to see them step in here and say, 'look, enough is enough because we don't want to see this escalate.'"
Watch this episode of "New American Daily" from The New American as host Paul Dragu discusses a revelation from German newspaper Bild discussing how Europe is preparing for a world war between Russia and NATO.
This video is from the channel The New American on Brighteon.com.
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