BRUSSELS, April 3. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he will demand at today’s NATO meeting in Brussels that every member of the North Atlantic Alliance increase their military spending to 5% of their GDP and that the United States, too, will have to raise its contribution.
The United States does "want to leave here with an understanding that we are on the pathway <…> to every single one of the [NATO] members committing - and fulfilling their promise - to reach up to 5% [defense] spending, that includes the United States that will have to increase its percentage," Rubio told reporters ahead of the meeting.
"No one expects that you are going to be able to do this in one year or two, but the pathway has to be real. This is a hard truth, but it is a basic one that needs to be said now. In order for us to <…> defend the territories of our nation states and deter any action that will be aggressive against any one of us," the top US diplomat concluded.
"That has been the message that President [Donald] Trump had in his first administration and so he wants to bring it to this one. He’s not against NATO. He is against a NATO that does not have the capabilities that it needs to fulfil the obligations that the treaty imposes upon each and every member state," Rubio concluded.
Earlier, Trump stated that Europe must shoulder the burden of its own security.
NATO Foreign Ministers are meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. The meeting is the alliance’s first with Rubio taking part. On April 2, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte urged "much more than 3% of GDP" in military spending, up from the current target of 2%, with a third of the bloc’s members still lagging behind. Data from the World Bank showed that the United States spent 3.4% of its GDP on its military in 2023, and, economists say, the country kept the same level of military expenditure last year.