Western leaders may have “goaded” Vladimir Putin into invading Ukraine, a former NATO chief claimed tonight
Giving evidence to the Commons Defence Select Committee, the alliance’s ex-Secretary-General Lord George Robertson said: “I just wonder whether or not - this is a radical thought for me to give you - did we goad him into doing it?
“Was he in fact assembling the troops around Ukraine in order to harvest some security guarantees, but at the end of the day felt that his own credibility would be diminished if he didn’t actually invade?”
Get a daily morning politics briefing straight to your inbox. Sign up for the free Mirror Politics newsletter
He admitted: “That’s a theoretical notion and only history will prove me right or wrong.”
Putin has tried to justify the invasion by claiming he feared Ukraine would join the 30-member NATO alliance, after the coalition welcomed nations closer to Russia ’s border in recent years.
But former Labour Defence Secretary Lord Robertson, who as NATO Secretary-General from 1999 to 2004 oversaw preparations for much of the enlargement effort, said: “I resisted the words ‘NATO expansion’ because NATO enlarged because one by one countries applied for membership and had to qualify for membership as they went along.
“That was a process that was gradual.”
He added: “I don’t think we did it too quickly, I think we did it systematically.”
MPs heard the war should trigger a rethink of the Government’s blueprint for the UK’s international relations, which was published exactly a year ago tomorrow.
The plan for foreign, defence and aid policy and spending was outlined in the “Integrated Review - Global Britain in a Competitive Age”.
But the Labour peer said: “The Integrated Review was written at a different time.
“There is no doubt in my mind and many other people’s minds that the world has changed quite dramatically.
“We have got a situation where a sovereign nation state inside Europe - a huge one - has been invaded by a next door country and a nuclear power.
“The whole centre of gravity, the whole nature of our defence relationship, has changed and we have to start rethinking where we are and how we do things best.”
Lord Robertson told MPs the invasion makes “a good case” for boosting Britain’s defence budget.
“I would have thought that inside government as a whole, the shock of what has happened in Ukraine in these last few weeks has woken people up to the fact that national security is of huge importance - supreme importance to people in the country,” he said.
“I would have thought there would be a good case for increasing the defence budget.”
The UK currently spends 2.2% of GDP on defence - one of 10 of NATO’s 30 members to reach the coalition’s target for spending 2% of a country’s annual wealth on its military.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak delivers his Spring Statement min-Budget next Wednesday and is under pressure to bolster funding.
Committee chairman Tobias Ellwood said: “You could argue this would be an opportunity for us to recognise the world is changing and we should increase defence spending in the longer term.”
Lord Robertson said: “I think we have to now.”
