BORIS Johnson will tomorrow serve up Christmas lunch to British troops on the frontline in Estonia.
The PM will also eat with soldiers from the Queens Royal Hussars, who are guarding the Baltic state under threat from Russia.
Boris Johnson will serve up Christmas lunch to British troops serving in Estonia
Mr Johnson met with British soldiers in Afghanistan in June 2018 while acting as Foreign Secretary
The trip to the Tapa military base near Tallinn will re-invoke a long-held tradition of the nations leaders marking service personnels sacrifices over the festive period. But it lapsed in recent years, while the Brexit crisis raged.
Ahead of the trip, Mr Johnson said: The men and women of our Armed Forces serve tirelessly every single day to keep us all safe.
While we enjoy Christmas with family and friends, they will be working hard across the world to defend Britain and our allies.
So at this time of year we should all take a moment to be thankful for the sacrifices made by our troops, many of whom will be spending Christmas on our deployments and bases around the world be it the Baltics, Ukraine or Afghanistan and those in Britain too.
DEFENCE OVERHAUL
He added: This year our military efforts in Estonia have been immense.
British troops form the largest part of NATOs mission in the country.
A total of 850 British troops are based at Tapa, as part of the NATO operation in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to protect the alliances eastern border.
The day trip comes as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace raised the prospect of a new defence overhaul as he warns forces chiefs they must cut our cloth to match our ambition.
It has emerged that the MoD faces a 7billion black hole in its 10-year-plan to equip the armed forces.
Mr Wallace told the BBCs Political Thinking podcast: The best thing I can do for the men and women of the Armed Forces is to make sure that we cut our cloth to match our ambition, manage expectations and say to the chiefs that your appetite has to match your stomach.
By doing so we build our credibility with the Treasury and Number 10 to say Look, we have sorted out our house, when you give us some more money we will deliver on what were trying to do and there will be no tricks’.
British troops are based in Estonia to guard against Russian threats
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has raised the prospect of a new defence overhaul
