European leaders make the case for increasing defence spending
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
European leaders and military chiefs make the case for increasing defence spending. A former head of the British military tells us investment is needed across the board, and that Europe is – and must be - able to defend itself without the US.
Also in the programme: Israel's cabinet votes in favour of beginning a process of land registration in the West Bank, a move condemned by Palestinians as ‘de-facto annexation'; and a row breaks out over potential cheating in the curling - at the Winter Olympics.
(IMAGE: Dutch Navy ship Johan de Witt heads to Arctic for NATO exercise, Den Helder, Netherlands - 16 Feb 2026/ CREDIT: Dingena Mol/EPA/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.5 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.9 | We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:15.0 | I'm Leila Nathu. |
| 0:16.3 | Later on the programme, we will hear from the actor who appears naked on stage at London's Royal Opera House |
| 0:21.9 | during a production of Wagner's Ring Cycle. I'm appearing naked as an 81-year-old and I think |
| 0:29.7 | it's something to be proud of, actually. I don't like to think of showing my body off, but I just want to |
| 0:36.8 | make the point that women of |
| 0:39.2 | this kind of age shouldn't be ashamed. More from Ilona Linthwaite in 20 minutes time. But first, |
| 0:47.1 | Europe is taking stock of its new security reality after this weekend's International |
| 0:52.0 | Defence Summit in Munich once again laid bare the precarious |
| 0:55.4 | state of transatlantic relations. President Trump's threat to seize Greenland is still fresh in |
| 1:00.6 | minds and as Russia's war in Ukraine grinds on, European leaders are focusing on strengthening their |
| 1:06.2 | own defences. Today, British and German military chiefs are making what they say is the moral case for rearmament, |
| 1:13.5 | saying it's the responsible action of nations determined to protect their own people and preserve peace. |
| 1:19.3 | The BBC's been told that the British Prime Minister Keir Stama is considering bringing forward a target to spend 3% of GDP on defence to 2029. Mr Stalmers was asked about it during a visit |
| 1:30.9 | to a community centre in London earlier. We need to step up. That means on defence spending, |
| 1:36.8 | we need to go faster. We've obviously made commitments already in relation to that. But it goes |
| 1:42.5 | beyond just how much you spend. It's also whether you |
| 1:45.5 | coordinate and collaborate with other like-minded countries, particularly in Europe. And that's |
| 1:51.1 | the case I've been making, which is that in addition to how much you spend, it's got to be how |
| 1:56.2 | you work together as a group of countries. How we make NATO stronger a European NATO. |
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