Cameron: West must act against adversaries for bright future
Lord Cameron has warned Britain and the wider West is "at a crossroads" at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in London and that "our adversaries will write our future for us" if countries fail to act. The foreign secretary added he would like the fighting to stop in Gaza "now", but that calling for an immediate ceasefire "does not make that more likely". Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 (applause)
00:06 My Lord Mayor, Your Excellencies, Mr Speaker, Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you.
00:13 I thought my days of dressing up in white tie and speaking in halls like this were well and truly over,
00:20 so I want to thank the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for bringing me out of retirement
00:25 and for you, Lord Mayor, for asking me to come and speak here tonight.
00:30 Now we live in a world that is more dangerous, more volatile, more confrontational than most of us have ever known.
00:38 War in the heart of Europe, while conflict rages in the Middle East and in 18 countries across Africa.
00:47 It is a stark contrast with my early years in politics.
00:51 As the Berlin Wall came down, it felt as if a new era of democracy, of market economics and of global cooperation was emerging.
01:02 And we need to face up to this new situation and act accordingly.
01:08 Chinese cyber attacks on our democracy.
01:11 A suspected Russian sabotage attack right here in London.
01:16 Iranian assassination plots here on British soil.
01:21 We cannot ignore the threat.
01:24 That's why Britain has taken action to defend ourselves against espionage more effectively,
01:30 to screen investment into our critical national infrastructure more carefully,
01:35 and to monitor our adversaries' influencing activities in Britain more closely.
01:41 And crucially, to invest 2.5% of GDP in defence and at least 5% of our defence budget in research and development.
01:51 Yes, the suffering in Gaza is heartbreaking.
01:54 But an unprovoked war against an independent country like Ukraine that poses no threat
02:01 is wholly different from the conflict that has followed the brutal attacks of October 7th.
02:07 We must be ruthlessly practical, fixing and facing the world as it is, not as it was or as we wish it to be.
02:17 And so yes, we want the fighting to end in Gaza.
02:20 I would like it to stop now and to have those hostages released.
02:25 But simply calling for an immediate ceasefire does not make it more likely.
02:30 It's more practical to focus on how you get that stop in the fighting, how you get that pause,
02:36 so we can see the hostages released, more aid delivered, and then turn that into a permanent end to the fighting.
02:43 In both foreign and domestic policy, in Britain and the wider West, we are at a crossroads.
02:51 If we make the right choices, if we act now, a bright future awaits.
02:57 But if we hesitate, our adversaries will write our future for us.
03:02 So we need to show courage, the courage to determine our own destiny,
03:07 the courage to rise to this moment of extreme peril, the courage to act.
03:14 Thank you.
03:15 [Applause]
03:24 Thank you.
03:27 I would like to propose a toast to the Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress.
03:34 To the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress.