Pentagon chief admits NATO allies stepped up on defense spending
Photo: US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (Getty Images)
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said during a conversation with NATO counterparts that the allies have really stepped up on defense spending, The Guardian reports.
He supports the main indicator - the allocation of 5% of GDP for defense, which is scheduled to be approved at tomorrow's meeting of the alliance.
According to UK Defense Secretary John Healey, Hegseth was supposed to speak first, but decided to wait and summarize the discussions at the end of the meeting to thank all 31 allies for the historic commitment.
"Essentially he was saying, what I recognise here tonight, is that Nato, you nations, have stepped up, and this 5% benchmark that we’re going to agree tomorrow is really historic," Healey says at the briefing.
The statement, which comes on the heels of recent comments by Hegseth that the US will not be predominantly focused on European security, is being received positively by European partners who expect a more even distribution of defense responsibilities.
Healey said that all NATO defense ministers, including him, recognize that it is up to Britain and other allies to put in the work now, not just in 10 years, to turn the spending pledge into a deliverable.
Britain will meet NATO's new target of spending 5% of GDP on national security by 2035.
At the NATO summit in the Netherlands, 32 member states, including the UK, are expected to agree to the 5% target, with 3.5% going to core defense and the remaining 1.5% to defense-related areas.
