Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO members Thursday to stop relying on U.S. taxpayer dollars and agree a deal on increasing military spending that could satisfy President Donald Trump at a summit this month.
“The United States is proud to be here, to stand with our allies, but our message is gonna continue to be clear: It’s deterrence and peace through strength, but it cannot be reliance,” Hegseth told reporters ahead of a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
“It cannot and will not be reliance on America. It can’t just be U.S. capabilities,” he said, repeating a warning long delivered by Trump.
Trump has long demanded alliance members boost defence budgets and called on them to target five percent of their GDP at the June 24-25 meeting in the Netherlands.
AFP reports NATO chief Mark Rutte has wavered on the call and put forward a compromise agreement for 3.5 percent of GDP on core military spending by 2032, and 1.5 percent on broader security-related areas such as infrastructure.
The U.S. demand for more NATO self-sufficiency comes as it faces the threat from Russia after more than three years of war in Ukraine. Hegseth made clear just what is expected:
The reason I’m here is to make sure every country in NATO understands every shoulder has to be to the plough, every country has to contribute at that level of five percent.
Our message is going to continue to be clear. It’s deterrence and peace through strength, but it can’t be reliance. It cannot and will not be reliance on America in a world of a lot of threats.
The AFP report sets out Spain is chief among the recalcitrants and is only set to reach NATO’s current target of two percent of GDP by the end of this year.
Diplomats say other European allies are also haggling over making the timeline longer and dropping a demand for core defence spending to increase by 0.2 percentage points each year.
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