A challenge to European values: Russia is not going to disappear anywhere — Wallace

In some European countries, they pray that an agreement on Ukraine will be reached as soon as possible and they can return to a peaceful life. This was stated at the Warsaw Security Forum by former British Defense Minister Ben Wallace, The Guardian reports.

He noted that very few countries really invest in defense.

"There is Germany, there is Poland, there are the Baltic States and Scandinavia, right? Britain, France, Italy and Spain — "we are not going to spend any real new money for the next three to four years, nor by the end of our election cycle"… I just already hear these little violins in the ministries of finance, hoping, praying that this peace agreement will be reached at any cost so that they can return to normal life and do what they have been doing with defense budgets all over Europe for 30-40 years, that is, corporate raiding in our budgets to finance other social budgets," Wallace said.

He noted that Russia is not going to disappear anywhere, which, according to him, is a challenge to European values.

"And for those of us in this room who think it's important that Russia is not going to disappear any time soon, and [this] is a challenge to our values, we must always, regardless of the color of the government, (act) to make sure that they spend what is appropriate," Wallace added.