UPDATE 1-"It happens every year", UK minister says of suspending parliament

Britain's defense secretary Ben Wallace said on Thursday that the suspension of parliament is an annual occurrence, as he arrived in Helsinki for talks with his European Union counterparts.

"It happens every year," Wallace told reporters when asked about the government's controversial move on Wednesday to prorogue parliament. The move has sparked outrage among opposition lawmakers and many others in Britain, and led to a sharp weakening in sterling as it was seen as increasing the risk of a no-deal Brexit. EU's foreign and defense ministers are meeting to discuss a raft of issues from hybrid threats to climate risks to security to tensions in the Middle East. Austria's defense minister was asked if Brexit would weigh on EU defense capabilities.

"Of course there will be consequences but it (Brexit) has also driven a dynamic to make the EU more self-reliant in this area," Thomas Starlinger told reporters.