Chapter 5 – Project Our Global Influence 51 5.27 Our defence spending commitment will ensure that we remain NATO’s strongest military power in Europe. In 2017 the UK will lead the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, formed in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and we will make a significant contribution to the force every year of this Parliament. As well as providing Typhoons to NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission, we have provided ships and Army units to NATO exercises to reassure our Allies against the threat from Russia, and we will continue to do so. We are joining the German-US Trans-Atlantic Capability Enhancement and Training initiative in the Baltic states and Poland, sharing our military expertise. 5.28 We are working with Poland to ensure that the Warsaw Summit in 2016 further strengthens NATO against current threats and adapts it to combat future ones. We will focus on cyber, countering hybrid threats, deterrence including strategic communications, and agile structures and decision-making. We will strongly encourage all our Allies to deliver on their Wales defence investment pledge, and support stronger, more coherent and interoperable NATO partnerships. We will continue to support a robust Alliance response, including in solidarity with Turkey, to threats from any direction. The United States of America 5.29 The US is the leading global economic and defence power, and the world continues to look to it to shape global stability and to lead international responses to crises. The Prime Minister and the President of the United States have recently reaffirmed the essential nature of our special relationship. The US is our pre-eminent partner for security, defence, foreign policy and prosperity. Our contribution to the special relationship includes our European and global reach and influence; intelligence; the strategic location of our Overseas Territories; as well as military interoperability, and the UK’s ability to undertake war-fighting independently or as a lead nation in a coalition. 5.30 The US remains the UK’s key economic partner. The US is our largest single export partner, with goods and services exports worth £88 billion in 2014, and we are inextricably linked through investment and banking sector channels. As the world’s largest economy, the US is vital for global growth and is a key G20 and G7 member, with the Federal Reserve being the central bank for the world’s largest reserve currency. It is a key UK ally in developing an effective rules-based global economy. Agreeing and implementing a comprehensive EU-US free trade agreement could boost the UK economy by up to £10 billion annually. 5.31 The unparalleled extent of UK-US cooperation on nuclear, intelligence, diplomacy, technology and military capabilities plays a major role in guaranteeing our national security. Our ability to operate together in future is at the heart of our planning. The UK and the US are at the centre of NATO’s collective defence and security, including through the declaration of our nuclear capabilities to the defence of the Alliance. 5.32 We will strengthen the interoperability with the US of our Armed Forces so that they are better able to work together when required through regularly planning and training together. Collaboration on our aircraft carrier programmes and the F35 Lightning, including the US decision to base aircraft in the UK, will enable us to fly aircraft from each other’s ships, and work together on operating them from the land and at sea. Our investment in P8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft will enable us to provide protection to each other’s aircraft carriers and further improve our interoperability in anti-submarine warfare, while also providing efficiencies in basing and support. We will also work very closely to optimise the use of strategically important capabilities such as Special Forces, cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, and satellite communications.