United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Newsmax Thursday that Prime Minister Keir Starmer will discuss a number of topics with President Donald Trump at the White House this afternoon, but one thing that he’s already informed Parliament of is the need to raise defense spending levels.

Trump said last month that NATO members should spend 5% of their gross domestic product on defense, which would be a substantial increase from the current 2% goal and a level that no member nation has yet achieved.

“The truth is that U.S. presidents have been urging Europeans to raise their defense spending since Roosevelt,” Lammy said on “Wake Up America.” “President Trump, I think when he came to power, just four nations, the United Kingdom was amongst them, were spending the required 2%. America is spending 3.38%. So we are some way off 5% of spending. But the truth is, in these dangerous times, we should recall that during the Cold War, countries like our own were spending 7% of our GNI and upwards.”

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