Speaking on the second day of the ITT Conference in Sicily, Fallon told delegates there was no denying the world was becoming a more dangerous place.
“That is beyond question,” he said. “We’ve seen the rise of atrocities in places such as China, Russia and Turkey; we’ve seen treaties breached by Iran and Russia; we’ve seen the World Trade Organisation under increasing pressure from America; we’ve seen the rise in regional tension in the Far East; and there has been a dramatic resurgence of Russia, which has been using force to intervene in Syria. Russia now spends 5% of their GDP on defence.
