The Prime Minister returned from Berlin last week with a new partnership against hybrid threats and talk of Germany joining GCAP. But beneath the diplomacy lies a harsher reality.

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For many in Europe, Britain is becoming a liability rather than an asset. Just this weekend, reports revealed that the Army is short of tank commanders because it cannot afford to train them.

Britain and our allies face the most dangerous international environment in decades. Russia is escalating its conflict against the democratic West. China is backing Russia’s war and is using its increasing economic, technological and military power to bolster authoritarian governance globally. Alongside Iran's prolific sponsoring of terrorism and North Korea's continued threats, Moscow and Beijing are threatening us from all angles.

This axis of authoritarian states threatens our values, seeks to destabilise our democracies and wants to see the suppression of our freedoms and the extinction of our Western way of life. Unless we stand up to this aggression, as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan did in the 1980s, we risk slipping into a new world order where the strength of free democracies is diminished and overwhelmed.

After the Berlin Wall fell, we got complacent, banking what we thought would be a long-term peace dividend. But the euphoria and optimism which came with German reunification and the growth of democracy among eastern European countries previously held under tight........

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