LONDON - Britain will deploy a carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and the High North this year, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday.

Starmer said the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales will lead the deployment, Sky News reported. He said that Europe "must be ready to fight," describing Europe as a "sleeping giant" with "huge defense capabilities," but adding that "too often this adds up to less than the sum of its parts."

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Britain is no longer the country it was during the Brexit years, Starmer said, adding that there is no British security without Europe, and there is no European security without Britain. He reiterated Britain's commitment to defend its allies if called upon based on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) Article 5, the principle of collective defense among member states.