David Lammy has declared that the hard-won “post Cold War peace is well and truly over” as he used his first major speech of 2025 to take aim at Vladimir Putin and Russian agression.
The foreign secretary threw his weight behind demands by Donald Trump for Nato allies to significantly increase their spending on defencewhile laughing off the president-elect’s expansionist plans for Greenland and Canada.
The president-election had demanded earlier this week that Nato allies commit 5 per cent of GDP to defence spending. While Lammy did not back that figure he warned “some allies are lagging behind” adding “we must put our money where our mouth is.”
Speaking in the Locarno room in the Foreign Office on Thursday to an audience of diplomats and foreign policy experts, the foreign secretary said that Russian aggression had ripped up the established world order from the 1990s.
He said: “We have to be taken seriously by opponents and allies alike.
“We must put our money where our mouth is. That starts by facing facts. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are simply right when they say that Europe needs to do more to defend its own continent.
“It is myopia to pretend otherwise, with Russia on the march.”
Underlining his policy thrust of “progressive realism” he also took aim at the previous Tory governments for undermining Britain’s place in the world. He tipped his hat to repairing some of the damaged relationships not just with the EU.
He also defended taking “a pragmatic approach” to relations with China cooperating on issues such as artificial intelligence and climate change.
Mr Lammy told an invited audience: “We and our allies must relearn the Cold War manual, long-term thinking, not short-termism.
“Consistent deterrence, not constant distraction. Adapting as emerging technology reshapes the strategic environment. Securing strategic stability in an unstable world.”
And he warned: “Our opponents are coordinating ever more closely.
“With Iranian drones fired at Ukrainian cities and North Korean troops now fighting against Ukraine.”
With Donald Trump threatening to unpick the international resolve on the war in Ukraine, Mr Lammy remained defiant over standing up to Putin.
He said: “Against Russia, progressive realism means not allowing Putin’s mafia state to act with impunity. Showing the world our resolve to stand by Kyiv until they prevail, guaranteeing £3bn a year in military aid for as long as it takes and unlocking new funding backed by frozen Russian assets.”
He bemoaned the Tory legacy he has been bequeathed in foreign relations.
“Relations with our closest neighbours in Europe plunged to a post-war nadir. Climate leadership abandoned by Rishi Sunak. Global investors horrified by Liz Truss’ kamikaze budget. Migration left out of control and a botched merger under Boris Johnson. Our armed forced undermined by David Cameron’s cuts.” And the FCDO rudderless with 7 Foreign Secretaries in seven years.”
The speech set out to define his approach to foreign affairs in a troubling time after his first six months in the FCDO. He even made a point of agreeing with Trump over defence spending.
Following the speech, Mr Lammy addressed issues around the incoming Trump presidency including attacks on the UK by tech billionaire Elon Musk who plans to play a major rolein the new administration.
On reports that Musk is actively working to remove Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister, he said: “I think that Keir Starmer was exactly right earlier in the week when he, of course, acknowledged the right to free speech. And there is a debate across the world about free speech, and Elon Musk is at one end of that debate. My own view is you can’t have free speech if it’s not based on fact and on truth.”
On Trump’s threats to take over Greenland, he added: “I think that experience demonstrates that Donald Trump’s intensity of rhetoric and his desire to pursue foreign policy through a lens of peace, through strength and through a degree of unpredictability, is one of his signatures, and that’s the environment we are in.
“Then I think you’ve got to sometimes step down from the rhetoric to the actuality. So, for example, in the last administration, he was pretty robust about NATO, but actually increased the amount of US troops stationed in Europe. He sent the first javelins to Ukraine.
“On the issues that he’s raising around Greenland, I think what he’s got in his sights is concerns in the Arctic, which we share about Russian and Chinese influence. Of course, there are US troops based in Greenland and a US base. He knows that Greenland is a Kingdom of Denmark, but he also knows that there is a debate in Greenland in relation to their self determination.
“So I think, I think he knows what he’s up to, and centering in his mind is the national economic security of the people of the US and the Arctic Circle, which is hugely important to European security.”
