UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps has warned that the globe has now entered a “pre-war” phase as nations prepare for the increasing possibility of World War Three.
Britain is facing wars in Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea in five years, Shapps said in a speech.
During a major address at Lancaster House in London, Shapps urged Britain and its allies to ramp up defense spending.
“The era of the peace dividend is over,” he asserted.
“In five years’ time we could be looking at multiple theatres involving Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea,” Shapps added.
The top UK official said the Ukraine war has now put the future of the world order at stake.
China was watching to see if the West lost patience, he added.
Iran had enriched uranium — used in nuclear weapons — to 83.7 percent.
And North Korea was threatening to expand its arsenal.
Shapps was unable to say when the UK Government would hit its target of spending 2.5 percent of GDP on defense.
However, he vowed that he would “strive to reach it as soon as possible.”
Despite the warnings, Shapps said there are no plans to reverse Boris Johnson’s cuts that took the Army to 73,000 personnel, its smallest in 300 years.
“I haven’t changed the plans,” he noted.
“A lot of people confuse and conflate troop numbers with how well-defended you are.”
In his brief Conservative Party leadership bid, Shapps called for a defense spending of three percent of GDP.
Today, he said the country faced tough choices “on the future of our national defenses.”
“The choice is stark,” he added.
“Some people, especially on the Left, have a tendency to talk Britain down.
“They believe Britain can no longer have the power to influence world events.
“I passionately believe these unpatriotic, Britain-belittling doom-mongers are simply wrong.”
Senior defense sources said UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was reluctant to fund the MoD at the expense of others.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the world has been edging closer to WW3.
On top of almost two years of brutal warfare, a leaked military report appeared to show Vladimir Putin’s step-by-step plan to bring the West to the brink of World War Three.
The secret documents described Putin’s possible “path to conflict” which reaches its climax in 2025 on “Day X” when half a million NATO and Russian soldiers face each other.
The bombshell files, obtained by Bild from Germany’s Ministry of Defence, lay out exactly how the Kremlin boss might be preparing for a hybrid attack on NATO as early as next winter and a full-blown war next summer.
It could begin with a spring offensive against Ukraine as Putin mobilizes hundreds of thousands of new soldiers over the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, Putin’s alliance with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has seen the pair bond over their shared views about the West.
Just weeks ago Putin unleashed North Korean rockets in Ukraine, killing hundreds in an unprecedented development.
And Kim even told Putin that he was sure that the Russian army would triumph against “evil” at a decadent banquet.
After labeling South Korea his “principal enemy,” Kim threatened to start a war – and the nuclear weapons at his disposal are not to be ignored.
Another dictator sparking fear among world leaders is Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.
Under his iron rule, China’s leader has committed gross human rights abuses against Uyghurs, strangled freedom in Hong Kong, and now looks poised to invade Taiwan.
Last year, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Vladimir Putin was “not even close” to how dangerous Xi is.
And reminiscent of Putin’s desires to take Ukraine, Xi’s chilling New Year address stated that Taiwan’s “reunification” with the “motherland” is a “historical inevitability”.
Observers believe Beijing may try to “strangle” the island using a blockade.
Others, meanwhile, suggest Communist China will launch a large-scale military landing on Taiwan’s “red beaches.”
And one small “mistake” could propel the world terrifyingly close to the edge of global catastrophe, a retired British Army general warned.
The threat caused by Iran has become ever more present in recent months since the October 7 massacre in Israel sparked a fresh war between Netanyahu’s forces and the terror group Hamas.
Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon have all been dragged into the conflict as have the UK and US.
Iranian terror proxies, including Hezbollah and the Houthis, have gone up against Israel, the US, and the UK as fears of an all-out war in the Middle East grow.
Former President George W. Bush’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mark Wallace is now warning that Tehran’s murderous regime is hellbent on destruction far beyond the Middle East.
Wallace warns that obtaining a nuclear weapon is just one strand in Tehran’s blood-soaked global campaign to reign terror.
According to Wallace, the U.S. and UK are both “firmly in its sights.”
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