'Russia’s Adventurism Must Come At A Cost', Defence Secretary Says

Speaking at the annual Security Conference in Munich, Germany, the UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson condemned the Russian breach of the INF Treaty.

The Defence Secretary took the opportunity to call on the leaders gathered to take action on Russia's threat of new missile equipment.

"Let’s deal with Russia’s breach of the INF Treaty and the threat of new Russian missiles. Let’s be ready to handle their provocations," said Mr Williamson.

"Russian adventurism must have a cost."

At the meeting, world leaders in defence and security were also warned Islamic State and al-Qaida may be re-grouping despite recent military defeats in the Middle East.

US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan discussed the future of military coalitions against the Islamic State.

"I for one envision an even bigger and stronger coalition going forward. One that has evolved to meet the global threat posed by ISIS’s offshoots and its murderous ideology," Mr Shanahan said.

The demand for NATO allies to hit the 2% spending target was also discussed a the meeting, with the UK Defence Secretary urging allies to reach the target. 

"NATO needs to remain the bedrock of our security in Europe," Mr Williamson said. 

"Let us all support the world's most successful military alliance in history."

"For years we were cutting defence budgets and now we are starting to increase," said Mr Stoltenberg.

"Since Trump came into office in 2016, European allies and Canada have added 41 billion extra US dollars for Defence spending and I expect that number to be 100 billions by the end of next year," said Mr Stoltenberg.

"We are now moving in the right direction.”

The leaders will discuss defence and security further over the next two days.