Mixing Foreign Aid with Defense budget commitments

British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon suggested that his government could switch millions of pounds of aid spending into the defense budget to help meet its 2 per cent NATO commitment.

Speaking to the Sunday Express, ex-defense chief Lord Robertson said: “Including the foreign aid budget in defense spending is just sleight of hand. It’s double entry bookkeeping. … This was never the traditional way of calculating our NATO contribution.

David Cameron was personally lobbied by US President Obamaduring last week’s G7 summit in Bavaria. Lord Robertson added: “You’ve seen President Obama making it very clear during the G7 that Britain wasn’t doing enough.

“My view is that they should leave financial engineering to the bankers. In defense terns what matters is protection of the allies and they’ll not be taken in by a cheap three-card trick.”

He added: “Foreign Aid is now pegged to GDP and it is going to leap up as the economy grows.

[Sunday Express]

This entry was posted in Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation by Grant Montgomery.